Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 09:36:26 +0100 From: "A.J. Norman" Subject: Breeders, Volume 10, Bark Psychosis, Laika Laika - Antenna EP (PURE CD 38) ------------------------------- Finally found it! Sexy black and silver cover, three mouthwatering percussion-heavy songs, and a remix of the A-side "Marimba Song". There's a flute, every sort of percussion instrument you can think of, nice singing, and the album should be a classic. -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England | Jedermann sein eigner Fussball nja@le.ac.uk | Date: 15 Jan 97 08:16:22 EST From: Dez <100702.123@CompuServe.COM> Reply-To: ctip@dharma.firstcomm.com To: Multiple recipients of Subject: Laika & other reviews My first post of '97, and a few things I've picked up over the last couple of weeks to mention. Laika - Sounds Of The Satellites (Too Pure) I found a promo CD of this on Saturday in Vinyl Exchange in Manchester. Unfortunately, no track listing came with it, so I can't identify what's what, so if anyone has one, I'd be grateful. Anyway, much as I liked a lot of the first album, especially the Can-like trance-out of 'If You Miss', I thought it a bit bland in parts - they seemed to work much better as a live unit. But this is an altogether different proposition. There doesn't seem to be a weak link throughout the twelve tracks. The sound is lusher than before, with more techno and downbeat hip hop influences (notice my avoidance of that dreaded t*** h** phrase), and much of it reminds me of Lamb, albeit with a more rock feel. Margaret's vocals are, as ever, fairly hushed throughout. But then I didn't really expect a rebirth as a disco diva. The cumulative effect is warm and mellow, but quite challenging too. I rate it very highly. Like the coda about Laika's (the dog) trip into space too. Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 09:43:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Andrew Norman Reply-To: ctip@dharma.firstcomm.com To: Multiple recipients of Subject: Laika, Snowpony New Laika single out yesterday - "Breather" (album version and edit), and "Looking for the Jackalope" (regular version and Meat Beat Manifesto remix), the 7" has the shorter version of both songs, the CD has all four and comes in one of those little cardboard sleeves (which almost made me miss it - recent Too Pure singles have tended to be in digipaks or full-sized jewel cases). 25 minutes of bliss - not very different from the last album, which is no bad thing, why change when you are nearly perfect? Snowpony's "The Little Girls Understand" single (Rough Trade singles club) comes in a stout cardboard fold-out envelope with a little essay about how in the future our sexuality is going to be determined by our minds not our genitals, and how we should reclaim notions of "Daddy" to give it a meaning related to female-female bondage roles rather than non-consensual intercourse, or something like that. Music, unfortunately, is just as uninspired as the previous Snowpony single. -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England nja@le.ac.uk http://www.engg.le.ac.uk/home/Andrew.Norman/ Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:27:22 +0000 (GMT) From: Andrew Norman Reply-To: ctip@dharma.firstcomm.com To: Multiple recipients of Subject: Re: Laika, Snowpony Stephane Sommet wrote on Tue, 21 Jan 1997 (Subject: Re: Laika, Snowpony) > Andrew Norman wrote: > > > > New Laika single out yesterday - "Breather" (album version and > > edit), and "Looking for the Jackalope" (regular version and Meat > > Beat Manifesto remix) > > Breather is not the best song of the new album. I don't really > understand why they choe that one for first single. "Looking for the Jackalope" is a better song (edgier, more mysterious), but both are fine. "Breather" seemed familiar, then I remembered that the last time I was in Revolver in Bristol it was being played. "Jackalope" is from one of the Red Hot compilations (the same one as had the only recent appearance of MBV on it?), which I don't have - a donation from the single is going to the London Lighthouse (centre for people with AIDS). Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 11:33:40 -0400 From: laika To: David Thorpe Subject: Laika Live Dates [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] Hello! Laika will be playing live at the following places: LAIKA - JUNE / JULY / AUGUST / SEPTEMBER '97 Sat June 14 Perugia (I) Rockin Umbria Festival Tue July 1 Nürnberg (D) Komm Wed July 2 Krefeld (D) Kultur Fabrik Thu July 3 Heidelberg (D) Schwimmbad Fri July 4 Hannover (D) Bad Sat July 5 Marburg (D) KFZ Festival Sun July 6 Rotterdam (NL) Metropolis Festival Tue July 8 Hamburg (D) Logo Wed July 9 Würzburg (D) AKW Thu July 10 Salzburg (A) Rockhouse Fri July 11 Mulhouse (F) Bete du Scene Festival Sat July 12 Lille (F) tbc Sun July 13 Dour (B) Festival Sat July 19 Phoenix Festival (UK) Guardian Stage Sun Aug 3 Guildford Festival (UK) TBC supporting Radiohead (all UK): Tue Sept 2 Doncaster Dome Thu Sept 4 Bridlington Spa Fri Sept 5 Dundee Caird Hall Sun Sept 7 Blackpool Empress Ballroom Mon Sept 8 Stoke Trentham Gardens Tue Sept 9 Gloucester Leisure Centre Thu Sept 11 Plymouth Pavillions Fri Sept 12 Reading Rivermead Sat Sept 13 Brixton Academy Sun Sept 14 Brighton Centre We will be setting up a new web site very soon with up-to-date news and tour dates. Apologies to anyone who's checked our site on the American Recordings server - we are no longer working with American and have not been able to update our web pages for almost 2 years. Thanks to all of you who've written about ordering a Laika snowdome - unfortunately they've SOLD OUT but we may be manufacturing more when we tour America. We should be announcing news of a USA release for our second album "Sounds of the Satellites" shortly. Thanks! - margaret laika@compuserve.com Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:21:36 -0400 From: Margaret Fiedler Subject: Laika news Laika are (ahem) "hard at work" on a new album with a single out (UK/Euro= pe only) in the autumn and the LP very early in 1999. In a last ditch attem= pt to get fit, Margaret and Guy have taken up tennis and can be seen most da= ys swingin' the rackets in Hackney's London Fields. In all truth they are probably getting in better shape running away from the park employee who sporadically tries to collect two pounds fifty for an hour's tennis. Lai= ka haven't been playing live much recently due to recording, save some great= festival appearances in Lisbon, Barcelona and Glastonbury (UK). Playing Glastonbury realised one of the band's long treasured ambitions - even th= e dreaded rain was on their side when a downpour drove even more people int= o the packed tent just as the band hit their first note of the set. In time-honoured Glastonbury tradition, they then smoked _way_ too much and cheered England to victory over veggie burgers and beer. In other news, Guy's producing a new 4AD artist who sounds like Tim Buckley singing over= an intriguing groovy blend of electronic and rock instrumentation. = Margaret was recently a bridesmaid at the year's biggest extravaganza - t= he wedding of her closest friend, Julie Hermelin and her new husband Mitchel= l Frank. The wedding took place outside Detroit and was attended by 850 people. The couple reside in Los Angeles, and please, don't send any mor= e gifts as they've now got _everything_! Laika can be contacted at laika@compuserve.com, or check out their UK record label's web site at http://www.toopure.com. Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:21:44 -0400 From: Margaret Fiedler Subject: stuff (long) Rob is back drumming wi= th PJ Harvey and will be out touring with her from August onwards. = (Incidentally, this does not mean that Rob will never play with Laika aga= in - he will contribute to our new album and possibly tour again in the future. We've recently started working with a new drummer called Kevin w= ho will complete our rhythm trio along with John on bass and Lou on percussion). From: Christian Hartwig Subject: Laika Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 17:42:38 -0600 Jacked from the unofficial Laika sight (http://www.netwiz.net/~aleister/laika/home.html) 6 January 1999 -- Margaret speaks! Our main priority is to finish the album - we should be mixing hopefully by the end of February. The record will be quite different: all tracks have live drums, all but two tracks have live bass guitar and generally it's a bit funkier and darker than the first two Laika albums. We've also written a bit more than we need for the album, so we've got enough spare tracks to put original b-sides on all the singles - we were a little burnt by the remixes we got for the last album and want to avoid doing that in the future unless we're really fans of the remixer. Titles so far (subject to change): *Good Looking Blues* (Kraftwerky-percussion driven thing) *Widows' Weed* (Miles Davis jazzy blues tabla groove) *T. Street* (my best impersonation of Tammy Wynette to date; a sweet song) *Glory Cloud* (very outwardly sung - a new direction for me) *Longwave* (laika meets betty davis and led zeppelin?!) *Gone Fishin'* (weird disembodied funk) *Moccasin* (again - very outward - and in 7/4 to boot) *Knowing Too Little* (funky rhodes downbeat rap) *A single word* (spacy loopy mantra song) *Black Cat Bone* (heavy as fuck - two drum kits piling down the motorway) *Uneasy* (a la Breather) *Big Bellied Angel* (the closest we come to drum and bass) *Lie Low* (a sad song) *Badtimes* (stoned ramble) *He Knows* (70's funk with a nice moog solo) Oh - all songs have vocals - no instrumentals this time 'round. Can't wait for the LP and the tour. No bad remixing, praise the lord. Now if I can just figure out how the new album can be darker than their first one. Maybe she means the music only and not the lyrics? Christian