𝚜𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚝: 14

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡ e n t r y 14 ♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

having a bit of a crisis of joy. i recently re-discovered laika after putting them off for so many years. i remember reading about them from an old music blogspot from over 15 years ago. an ex-friend of mine recommended me moonshake's first ep (when i was really obsessed with shoegaze at the time). i fell in love with that ep and eva luna (another album i've been re-discovering lately). laika's second record, the sounds of satellites has been sending me to a state of musical unrest for the past few months. it's dreamy, voluminous in sound and atmosphere that sends you to places unknown. margaret fiedler's effortless, breathy (see: "breather") sleek vocals & masterful sampling coupled with guy fixsen's programming is a recipe for magic. it's hard to categorize them. it's aerial, spacey, downtempo, ethereal, trip-hop?? laika were one of the first wave of bands that were labeled "post-rock" in the 90s. their influences span from: miles davis, captain beefheart, can, wire, etc [source]. after margaret left moonshake in 1993, she started an artistic relationship with producer & engineer guy fixsen (worked with pj harvey, mbv, wire, stereolab, & moonshake's earlier work, etc), along with ex-moonshake bassist john frenett & drummer lou ciccotelli. since then they have met critical & commercial success with the release of a total of four records together. they disbanded in 2003, due to the onset of music file sharing of the early 2000s (i wonder how margaret feels about the current state of music now actually). i find those days almost nostalgic, especially when compared to the current paradigm now of music discovery (perfectly curated algorithmic "aesthetic" playlists dominated by spotify and 10 second tik tok sound bites..) regardless, it's a shame they no longer release music under laika, especially since electronic music since then has blown up in the 2000s and on (radiohead for example, which laika has opened for!)

there are things i can't explain

why a seashell loves the sand

why tornadoes love the plains

why my dreams have lost their wings?

album: sounds of the satellites

year: 1997

label: too pure

((ε(*っ′∀`)っ† ｡.:*･ﾟ☆.｡.:*･ﾟ ☆*tracklisting: .。.：*・゜☆ ｡.:*･ﾟ☆.｡.:*･ﾟﾞ

1. prairie dog ☆ (downtempo, skittery spacious synths, percussive)

2. breather ☆ (moog-y heavy, broody) "dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in a dry season"

3. out of sight and snowblind ☆ (delicious bass)

4. almost sleeping ☆ (textural soundscapes & otherworldly, accompanied with a very 90s, but beautiful music video, visually reminds me of mbv's "soon," which guy fixsen worked on loveless!)

5. starry night ☆ (gorgeous swirling & atmospheric fluid synthesizers @2:38 mark, truly magical) "one by one the stars break through, one by one the stars break through"

6. bedbugs ☆ (sexy, cinematic & lots of fun) "it's gonna swallow me whole...it's gonna follow me home, somewhere in the shadows there's a place for me..."

7. martinis on the moon ☆ (my least favorite track, it pales in comparison to the rest in my opinion)

8. poor gal ☆ (a thumper)

9. blood and bones (moody mix) ☆ "all these things i am for you..."

10. shut off / curl up ☆ (visceral, sad, dreamy, bass that beats like a heart & super addictive) "shut off, curl up, if it hurts push harder...angel, there's no time left, won't you give me strength?"

11. spooky rhodes ☆ (easily my favorite track, an earworm that won't leave me, so affecting, so emotional, swirling over, and over, and over, and over in my head. phenomenal production & programming) "...why my dreams have lost their wings?"

12. dirty feet and giggles ☆ (stay tuned for the secret track at the end, worth it!)

☆interview from 2004 with margaret☆

why did you choose the name laika for the band?

m: i think it’s just a sweet image this little dog just lost in the space. but a great sadness as well. because they knew at the [space] center that she’s gonna die. it’s kind of bittersweet images that express our music. it’s sort of melancholy and we like that in music, we like that in movies and in emotions. hopeful but sad. we also liked the idea of the dog in a spaceship for the first album cover and for the posters.

last question: can you describe your work with only three words?

m: spacy melancholic pop.

[SOURCE]

☆interview from their now defunct website, expanding on their band name☆

why did you call yourselves 'laika'?

m: it means 'barker' in russian. laika was the name of the dog that the russians sent into space in sputnik 2 in november 1957. she was the first living thing to leave the planet. for us it made a good band name firstly because we liked the sound of the word and we liked the association with being 'out there' in terms of experimentation while at the same time being a warm furry organic thing. it was also a highly significant point in the space race/cold war when suddenly america was shown to be apparently behind the ussr in technological terms. people assumed that nuclear bombs would soon be raining down on them from sputnik 3. the other reason we like the name is that it was probably the most high profile animal experiment ever - laika died up there in her capsule - and we are strong believers in animal rights and things that seem kind of obvious to us, like not eating them. [SOURCE]

(little fun fact about this interview & marg not eating meat! apparently she dated moby when he had his first band, and she was vegetarian, which then prompted him to become one too) [SOURCE]