CD - Leila - Blood Looms And Blooms
When I was little, my best friend’s aunty let us borrow her Oxygene tape. It was really out there. All this crazy electronica stuff. We played it and pretended we were men on the moon. Then we pretended other things that don’t pertain directly to this review. Suffice it to say, Oxygene took us places.
I was reminded of this when I stuck Blood Looms And Blooms into my Mac.
Leila Arab, born 1971, is an Iranian musician who moved with her family to London after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. According to her publicist, she was first spotted by Björk, who invited her to accompany the songstress on tour. Blood Looms And Blooms is her third album.
Track one, the powerful Mollie, is amazingly transportive. If you are into free or five rhythms dancing you could really move to this. It’s beautiful.
Next up is Time Blows that starts with an ohm-pa-pa thing but builds to something creepy and equally amazing. Terry Hall’s (front man to The Specials) vocals help to make this particularly beautiful.
I love getting off to Massive Attack. So Leila’s Mettle works wonders for me. Oh, the drippy, arachnephobic yumminess of it ends all too soon.
Of course, being a Beatles girl I had to check out Norwegian Wood. Wow. I’ve heard some covers in my time but nothing like this. I believe that if you are going to do a cover you have to really make something of it. It’s not karaoke, after all. So, I take my hat off to Luca Santucci (vocals), Leila and all others involved in this track. It’s a genuine cover, taking something classic and giving it a very current and personal re-working. Brilliant.
This was an absolutely fantastic album. It transported me to new and exciting places. Sound-artist Leila has made a wonderful comeback with Blood Looms And Blooms. Do yourself a beats favour here.
Leila – Blood Looms And Blooms is out now through Warp Records/Inertia Music.
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