Album Review: Locean – Top Ten Zen Meditations (Artificial Head Records)

Formed in 2012, Locean found its collective feet through a shared passion for genre apocalypse; live improvisation, raucous live shows and sonic exorcism. Signed in 2019 to the Houston-based label Artificial Head Records (Baby Birds, Funeral Horse and Terminal Cheesecake et al) for the release of their exquisite album, Chav Anglais, the experimental Mancunians return on December 11th 2020 with their most exploratory recordings yet; Top Ten Zen Meditations.

Explains vocalist Lauren Bolger:

Top Ten Zen Mediations is a return to the early, unhinged phase of Locean. It documents two phases of the band. Two line-ups of people, two different sets of tension and intimacy in the room. Therefore, the whole album has a dual contrasting energy running through it. It harnesses our live performance really well and we think it’s the closest you’ll get to actually seeing a Locean show.

It says a lot about this record that by time it finally ended (it’s 72 minutes long!) I wasn’t sure if I loved it or hated it but either way, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There’s something so infectious about this album, something that gets under the skin and urges you to hit play once again. Something that sets up home in the back of the mind and promptly starts laying eggs that make the psychedelia on show here something to marvel… or fear, at.

Describing the fascinating weirdness of this alternative rock outfit is no easy task. Imagine the sonic summation of something like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. It’s infuriatingly baffling at times but when it all makes sense, it becomes one of the best things you’ve ever experienced.

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At times; dark and cold, at others meditative and thought-provoking. Sometimes it feels utterly devoid of emotion and purposely trying to make things uncomfortable (Clicking Fingers, Twenty Zen). Then there are the moments where the furore and passion are so evident it is near startling (Sprruce Bingsteen, All Around Me)

However, like that excellent show mentioned above (watch Twin Peaks!), it’s not for everyone. This is something you must experience yourself and make up your own mind. No matter what, few will have experienced something quite as unique as this.

Locean – Top Ten Zen Mediations Full Track Listing:

1. Coca Cola (Cassette and Digital Only)
2. Clicking Fingers
3. Sprruce Bingsteen
4. Twenty Zen
5. Officer (Cassette and Digital Only)
6. Forever Zen
7. Looking For Melody
8. All Around Me

 

 

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Locean - Top Ten Zen Meditations (Artificial Head Records)
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