Laura - Twelve HundredTimes

Mon 28th Nov, 2011 in Music Reviews

On the borderline of post-rock, progressive metal, and grandiose folk, Twelve Hundred Times provides a completely cinematic listening experience. Sparring guitars and cello vignettes create a wall of white noise that undeniably opens up each song to be their own. The sheer size of The Slow is something to behold, working largely with that wall of noise but interpreted with a marching band-type drum beat, acting almost as a call to arms. Likewise, This Grey Earth demonstrates a number of the band’s influences in its duration, with the vocal of Andrew Chalmers lending itself to bands like A Perfect Circle and Thursday at times.

Opener Visitor provides one of many slower moments on Twelve Hundred Times yet remains a compelling and powerful beginning to the album. Laura’s music continually draws you in, and equally takes a lot out of you in the process. It almost creates a rush that you never want to end and, when it does, it simply lures you back for more. Tracks like Visitor and Mark The Day contrast the band’s penchant for rocking out with more controlled, slow-burning efforts that allow the work of Carolyn Gannell on cello and Nathan Biggin on keys to shine and enhance the final product to great effect. These songs depict what Laura are trying to get at with Twelve Hundred Times; it comes across at times as a very nostalgic look at the band’s own past experiences tied together through the running theme of the land and empty spaces, at times feeling apocalyptic, at others feeling hopeful.

The album is also linked by a number of varied interludes, most down-tempo, but still holding the energy and intrigue of its faster tracks. Gravity Hill is based around static rhythms and synthetic percussion that are reminiscent of a wartime movie, perhaps more specifically a post-battle scene where soldiers would sift through the remains of their comrades. And if Gravity Hill is post-war, Fugue State could represent the nearing completion of war, with grief-stricken bodies continuing their journey to battle on no matter what the circumstance. These two tracks in particular perfectly break up the rest of the record, and along with the introspective yet brilliant Stone Speed, provide a different perspective to what many may come to expect from Laura.

Ultimately, Twelve Hundred Times could be considered a bleak record, but one that holds beauty in its bleakness. It intentionally documents the sounds and spaces that an empty location would come to represent, and is uniquely an Australian record for that fact alone. It would be easy to picture this record soundtracking a trek across the desert or a stockman rambling through the high country on horseback, given its explosive instrumentation and free-flowing structures.

Laura have certainly cemented their position in Australian post-rock music with this album, one that is likely to have an effect on all who listen, whether you are conscripted to this genre or not.