Loma Loma

• 1 Who Is Speaking? 02:14
• 2 Dark Oscillations 05:37
• 3 Joy 03:22
• 4 I Don't Want Children 05:49
• 5 Relay Runner 05:00
• 6 White Glass 04:12
• 7 Sundogs 05:31
• 8 Jornada 03:20
• 9 Shadow Relief 04:49
• 10 Black Willow 05:17
• Total Runtime 45:11

Info for Loma

Loma's enigmatic debut feels beautifully adrift in time and space. It's an album that takes you to a place you've never been, with a rare confidence in the strength of its own vision.

Though it was recorded off a dirt road in rural Texas, there's no hint of country here: from the first airy notes of "Who Is Speaking?" to the decaying choir of "Black Willow," Loma create a hypnotic world of their own, where rustling leaves, fuzzed-out basses, panting dogs, prepared pianos, and a wilderness of percussion form a backdrop for Emily Cross's translucent voice. She's a steady, clear-eyed presence throughout, even among the heart-pounding pulses of "Relay Runner", the skittering drums of "Dark Oscillations" and the galloping release of "Joy"; in sparer songs like "Shadow Relief" and the haunting "I Don't Want Children," she's a fearless ally, swimming calmly with you against a powerful undertow.

Loma is inviting but also beautifully self-contained, like a dream that stays with you all day. There's something here for lovers of Nina Nastasia or Broadcast, but also Linda Thompson, or The Silver Apples—even early Pink Floyd. But most of all, this arresting and mysterious album marks the arrival of a band whose first steps already feel timeless. Loma was recorded by the group at Dandy Sounds Studios in Dripping Springs, Texas and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.

"The debut long-player from the Lone Star State trio featuring Jonathan Meiburg, Emily Cross, and Dan Duszynski, Loma splits the difference between the spectral post-rock of the latter pair's Cross Record, and the powerful indie rock pageantry of the former's Shearwater. The project began to take shape during Shearwater's 2016 tour, which saw Cross Record serving as the support act. Recorded in a secluded Texas farmhouse in the midst of the dissolution of Cross and Duszynski's marriage, the ten-track set is both delicate and robust; a semi lo-fi excursion into impressionistic art-rock that appeals to both the head and the heart. Bolstered by a pair of compelling singles, the appropriately Motorik "Relay Runner" and the brooding and hypnotic closer "Black Widow," there is a considerable bit of alchemy at work -- Meiburg provided the lyrics and melodies, while Cross handled vocal duties and Duszynski engineered and mixed -- this suggests that whatever bad juju was occurring in the background was being successfully processed through the music. Opener "Who Is Speaking" sets an almost ephemeral tone that's eventually reined in by the muscular "Dark Oscillations" and "Joy," both of which flirt with traditional rock architecture, but are ultimately carried off into the ether via Cross' celestial voice. The stark and brutally frank "I Don't Want Children" impresses with its sonic intimacy, as does the mercurial "Sundog," one of a few selections that utilizes the sounds of the remote location's flora and fauna -- wind through the trees, birds chirping, and dogs barking in the distance -- lending the proceedings a bucolic, almost Terrence Malick-ian vibe, and adding even more mystery to what is truly a singular piece of work." )James Christopher Monger, AMG)

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