I keep thinking that the world might be flat and that, if you walk in a straight line, you will fall over the edge into the eternal abyss of reality television and Taylor Swift’s greatest hits. Two things that go together well, I know, but there are also things that don’t quite fit quite as synergistically into the way of the things of today and one of those things is Labasheeda.
This Amsterdam based band’s album “Status seeking” plays out like European post rock hybridised with Dadaism in that curiously intellectual way that makes each song seem like a message that you have to decode with one eye shut. The necessary clues are likely to be found in the ever present and directionally consistent guitar but, with voices drifting in out of the songs to deliver lyrics dyed deep with poetry, the end result marches instead to the beat of the enigmatic.
And enigma it must be for, despite a masked purpose and the occasional traditional punctuation provided by a reticent violin, “Status Seeking” is an album of steps towards the future. Whilst this is a soundtrack to thought and perhaps scientific examination, what we, in fact, have here is passion sharpened to a point and prodded deep into the grey conformity of the here and now.
Best song? The convincingly conventional “Crossing Lines”.
The verdict? Almost mystical if you stick with it.
The album is available from Bandcamp (and on vinyl too).