LACKTHEREOF - YOUR ANCHOR

Lackthereof is Danny Seim, drummer in Portland, Oregon’s indie starlets Menomena. It’s a different listening experience when you pick up a solo album by a supporting member of a band you know and like - different to a straight up album that is. And if you’ve only ‘heard of’ that band; there’s still a certain stigma attached. Even if you’ve never heard or ‘heard of’ that band, knowing they exist can send you wondering what they might be like. Of course you might not care to find out. But that’s your call.

But Lackthereof predate Menomena, and so it is in fact Menomena that is the side-project. Hell, Seim has released 8 previous Lackthereof albums dating back as far as 1998 (the first six of which were home recordings, but still, 8!).

 

Seim plays everything you hear on Your Anchor, which is no mean feat: there’s a lot going on here. He sings too, in a sort of Aidan Moffat of Scotch-indie miserablist marvels Arab Strap drawl, but with a more nasal American twang. He harmonises himself as well which lends the album a very 3 Eps era Beta Band flavour – vocal mantras build and fall without ‘kicking off’ or ‘rocking out’. 

 

Your Anchor could easily be a full band’s album, and to play it live Seim would have to employ the services of some other musicians - if only he had two friends who thought in a similar way and could play instruments as well as he can… wait!? This could very well be Menomena. Sure it’s less playful, the voice is less varied – it is all the same one you know – and some of the avenues explored veer from the Menomena course. Ask Permission has a sweetly understated beatbox set over slide guitar and basslines that would have Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai nodding his approval.

 

But too much has been made of the Menomena connection. Your Anchor is a controlled and beautiful record, shot through with knowing confidence. It is carefully organised to guide you emotionally through the album like when the echoed chanting of Choir Practice builds to the albums most up beat moment and is then followed by the aforementioned lull of Ask Permission. Seim even chooses to end with a stark cover of The National’s Fake Empire.

 

It’s the project’s most high profile release to date gaining US release on Barsuk whose other artists include… err… Menomena. At this rate it won’t be long before he is calling those two friends to help him get on stage… or maybe just Geddy Lee!