“Both are vast, deep and occasionally elegiacally beautiful”
Loch Lomond: Little Me Will Start A Storm (Chemikal Underground)
Written for and published in The Herald, 19 October 2011
Like The Manchester Orchestra, Loch Lomond are an American band who looked to the UK for nomenclature; unlike The Manchester Orchestra, they had no idea what their moniker actually referred to. Signing to Scotland’s own Chemikal Underground may have provided them with a geography lesson, but the Oregon-based sextet already had plenty in common with their inadvertent inspiration: both are vast, deep and occasionally elegiacally beautiful.
Little Me Will Start A Storm is chamber folk at its most exquisite, created and performed by masterful players who aren’t afraid to break with convention. From the throbbing Factory-funk bassline that underpins first track Blue Lead Fences, through the rapturous build of Blood Bank all the way to the final gorgeous drone of Alice Left With Stockings And Earrings, this is an album full of unexpected delights — yet every song is also an object lesson in melody and harmony.
There’s nothing flashy or showy here, and as such it’s not an album that rewards careless listening. Instead, allow yourself to be immersed.
