Luacollider Sunbelt_princess

LUACOLLIDER - 新​​​世​​​紀​​ Sunbelt Princess

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Whatever this really is, it is a miracle brew which feels a little bit like a fountain of youth, because coming out at the end one feels amazingly refreshed and really anew and in tune with his new listening habits. Thank you for the great record, LUACOLLIDER!

Years ago, I always did a wonderful collaborative playlist with my Dutch brother Maarten adding one track each day for a whole year - this way we’d keep up to date with the most amazing new music. The problem were always the first few days of the year, when not a lot of music would be released. Oftentimes, we’d automatically add the always great Dead Neanderthals track to the list, as the tracks are always released on Dec 31st or January 1st and they are always AWESOME! By the way, please check out their great new year’s release for 2025 called Other Worlds which is as close to “Kosmische Music” as Rene and Otto might ever come, wonderful!

Why all this gibber here instead of a description? Because lua! trilogy and Supercollider (aka together LUACOLLIDER) released an amazing record on January 1st, which is everything a genre-hopping all-things-go listener could wish for. Twists, turns, references, referrals! So this year, Maarten and I would have had a different possible choice!

The record is really amazing for all that it’s worth. It starts off with its heaviest moment, probably and showcases many elements these three songs will provide en masse: Movie samples, great beats somewhere between Jazz and Math-Rock, Indie and Punk, and some passages where one has the feeling of re-inventing a crossover between From Monument to Masses and Don Caballero. It is even hard to tell which elements are handmade and which aren’t but in the best DJ Shadow-sense, who cares? This might be the Math-Rock version of Endtroducing or the electronics only idea of American Don - either way, this is nothing but amazing. When the second 10-minute track goes into its glorious middle passages, one seems to hear an accordion and cow bells, and yet, this is less of bad German “Volksmusik” from the Bavarian Alps, but more of a sea shanty played by none other than Godspeed You! Black Emperor. When the whole track gives way to some highly spherical melody lines (which MIGHT be a guitar), then one might have the mental image of looking down from a majestic mountain into the valley below, but that is as close to some Alpine image as the whole thing might go. The third track starts like a reference to a modern Pop-track that I am sure I heard my daughter play some weeks ago, but I cannot for the life of me figure out which one. Here, the first leading instrument sounds like a flute and it is amazing how the sparkling piano works before the drums are showcased again and allowed to display as many different patterns and shuffles as possible before the new scratched soft intervention gives way for another rhythm, another different synth sound (sometimes very spherical and laid back, sometimes pushy and forward thinking). Remember the flute I mentioned above? That’s the instrument that holds the whole track together, much more than the drums or the synths – even though you might not notice it at first, because each new “spin” of the turntable provides a new element, from some rim kicks to a funky bass-line, a variation of the piano line from before. Amazing stuff!

The only thing that I would surely not need is the edited version of the basically last track called ”Emerald Eyes (A Medley of Sorts)” - one can find this chopped up version on Spotify but cutting a 10 minute track down to 4:17 minutes? Utterly unnecessary.

Oh, one thing I have to mention is the artwork because it seems like a cool display of Daft Punk worship – think of the brilliant videos for the Discovery-singles like ”One More Time” - the artwork for the LUACOLLIDER record here has a very similar attire and also strikes a nerve. The way the three songs unfold, one must admit that the repeat button becomes a necessity, for the feel good effect this record has is undeniable!