Multi-Panel is Ludo Maas. Alone in the Field is a patchwork of colliding test cuts, strips of sound, sampled play back with a screened-in bevy of contorted vocals that are equally nervous and patterned accordingly on “Traveling Places.” With vocal treatments from Francien Verdenius on “The Old Times” we are drawn into a world that is part minstrel show with dalliances in classic duets of yore (Capt & Tennille, Donny and Marie) without the glam, and half the fat. Cowbells tinker away alongside fairlight sounding harmonies as we peer at the “Mountains in the Distance.”
Maas has captured a flavor of the open road here, it’s a travel record, something that just ponders the distances ahead, the rationale that got him here and will take him further.
This is not plain old electronica, this is pretty intuitive stuff especially heard on the apt titled “Escapism” which uses a drone-like organ sound that’s somewhat dark but changes chords at intervals like a signal back to Mother Earth. His fantasy landscape is dappled with bright colors and various chasms. Ochre’s remix of “A Day for War” is more upbeat than the included original in its airy, open synth feel. Not quite a dance track, but keeps the mood high spirited given its submissive content about our times. Evil Mousepad strip apart “Traveling Places” and concoct more of a garagey tangle of stringed chords that bounce in slow-mo; it presses the early 80s punk button for me in its simplistic delivery, harsh and good, but not quite a kick in the eye – which is to their credit as we have mostly been there and done that! “Night Stranded Drummers” is given the final spot to be demented by Bambi Dexter’s rock remix which creates a post-Pixies sort of style. The grinding guitars give the conclusion here an anthemic feel that drifts away with chaotic whirly-gig chords wrapped run tightly and spun back in and out of control. It’s like a latent Violent Femmes demo tape for amnesiacs.
Alone in the Field is out now on Unschooled Records.
