The first time I heard the Notwist's Neon Golden, I was on an Air France flight en route to America from Paris. As soon as I slipped the disc into my Walkman, hit play, and heard indie glitch-pop, I was crestfallen. At the time, I was only familiar with the German group as the architects of "Scoop", a sublime click-infused slice of ambient techno, one of the highlights of Morr Music's 2000 compilation, Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey. The record had just been released in Germany, and the only pre-album press I had seen for Neon Golden was a prominently placed review in French music mag Les Inrockuptibles, which I had thumbed through at a newsstand but alas couldn't read. My hopes dashed, it took a few weeks for me to embrace, and eventually love, the album.
The change in direction and sound of this newest release by Notwist leader Markus Acher's other, arguably more established group Lali Puna isn't anywhere near as jarring as the difference between "Scoop" and Neon Golden, but it's certainly a left turn. After two rewarding albums of melodic, warm digital melodies, Lali Puna's Left Handed EP prominently features (gasp!) guitar.
The title track of this slender three-song, 13-minute EP begins with a frantic pulsating synth, but it's soon overpowered by Acher's familiar, churning six-string. More forceful than in any of his recent Notwist work-- although still far from the band's punk roots-- the track briefly gives center stage to Valerie Trebeljahr's melancholy voice and pensive lyrics, before building into a thrashing climax. Blurring the lines between Acher's two most high-profile bands, "Left Handed" sounds like a seamless, self-made mashup from this ambidextrous artist.
This EP-- Lali Puna's first new release since a 2002 split single with Isan-- is either a teaser to acclimate listeners to a new sound or a curious one-off flavored by the contribution of Notwist touring guitarist Max Punktezahl, who earns a co-songwriter credit on the title track. I'm hoping for the former: as entrancing as the band's previous efforts are, after two albums of virtually identical moods and sounds, change is welcome. "Left Handed" was recorded almost 18 months ago-- around the same time as Neon Golden-- so, if this was an anomaly rather than a taste of what is to come, it would make little sense to sit so long on its release.
The EP's second track, "Left Handed Dub", is equally wonderful. A remix of the title track, it's at first built on dub's recognizable explorations of space and use of echo, but quickly speeds its pace and slides into an engrossing mélange of spongy phrases and rhythms. Delicately layered, it moves from gurgling beats to spy-film paranoia to engrossing warmth without any neck snapping.
Filling out the EP is the band's cover of Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder's "Together in Electric Dreams", first released on the 2000 tribute album Reproductions: The Songs of the Human League. Oakey and Moroder's track is more notable for the collaboration itself than the result, which is a surprisingly limp ballad. Lali Puna's cover is an improvement, retreating into introspection and infusing the song with passive-aggressive resignation.
The inclusion here of "Together in Electric Dreams" does cheekily nod to what is striking about the title track. If Lali Puna plan to retain the guitar as a fixture in their sound, the song's key sentiment-- a fleeting love that will "always be...in electric dreams"-- seems an appropriate, sweet farewell to the band's all-synth days.
