LAROCA: Friends In Far Away Places

Laroca

Friends In Far Away Places

© 2006 Just Publishing (677603001927)

CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.

A heady mix of lush electronica, world flavours and muted beats, this is the impressive debut album from "cinematic groove merchants" - NME.

notes

Friends In Far Away Places is the debut long player from ‘cinematic groove merchants’ Laroca. Their sound is reassuringly chilled yet funky, symphonic, soulful, layered and exotic; the result of a sonic adventure embarked upon by the Laroca duo. For Laroca's Rob Pollard and Olly Wakeford, though, Friends In Far Away Places is a personal, musical journal of the last five years, drawing inspiration from foreign travel and music that ranges from Sufi and Afro-Beat to flamenco.
Drawn together from Oxford and London through a mutual friend and a shared love of My Bloody Valentine-esque musical noise Rob Pollard and Olly Wakeford began their adventure experimenting with a cheap sampler and a Korg Prophecy. Although the early Laroca sound was mainly electronic it wasn’t long before they were longing to introduce more and more live instruments. Both had played music from an early age; Olly, had played keyboards, bass and the flute ever since his arms were long enough and was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied for 7 years. It was during this period that he also started dabbling in various bands, playing keyboards and bass guitar, whilst at the same time going off to Central Saint Martins College to study Fine Art. Meanwhile Rob learnt the piano, bass and jazz guitar at a young age, developing an early song-writing habit, which was fulfilled with the aid a 4-track recorder and some creaking eighties' synths. By the time he had completed his history degree at Oxford University he was a veteran of several bands and once he’d been introduced to Olly, it was only a matter of time before Laroca was formed.
For Friends In Far Away Places, Laroca went on to enlist the additional musical talents of vocalist Anna Snowman (Fiona Renshaw), MC Mantmast (Grooverider, Friction), Ricky Fabulous (Belleruche) on guitars, Matt Derbyshire (The Second Whorl) on Rhodes, Nick Atkins (Bussetti) on Sax and Mr Smiff (Breakin Even) on congas. This injected a new energy into the project, something which Rob & Olly were determined to bring back into the studio when they started recording. The result is a vibrant and exotic sound which translates equally as well live as it does on your iPod or stereo, justifying the faith Pete Lawrence had in them when he booked them, prior to signing their deal with Just Music, to play at the 2004 Big Chill festival.
Friends In Far Away Places is inviting and compelling; highlights include Generalife, a Sufi-tinged filmic affair, Laroca’s signature tune Looking Like Lions and the hypnotic Plage Lodo, inspired by a trip to Corsica, with its laidback, muted beats and soothing flute effortlessly conjuring up images of pure white beaches and Super8 holiday films.

reviews

Please log in to review this album.

  • Smooth grooves with beautiful beats
    author: Scott

    It's hard to classify Laroca so instead of trying to pigeonhole them I'll just tell you what to expect - lush instrumentation, laid back beats, soulful vocals (on a few tracks) and a vibe that works equally well whether you're movin or just chillin. Check out "Looking Like Lions", my favorite track, and "Latin" to see what kind of diversity this album brings.

email

Please log in to email this artist.