Album Review

Laki Mera – Turn All Memory To White Noise

• 15th Jul 2013

Militaristic drums beat home a steady tattoo, minimal yet powerful whilst a soft voice slinks over the top, enticing you in with her glacial cool.

Welcome to Leki Mera’s third full length studio album, and welcome to an album that leaves the listener second guessing what to expect next.

The opening track ‘Come Alone’ that seemed rather straightforward in tone gives way to a driven electro edge that cuts right through the song, displaying a flirtation with the experimental. And although this pattern doesn’t always follow on every track, when it does rear its head it provides a wonderful distraction from more predictable chanteuses that seem content to fluff up a twee cover version and hope John Lewis have noticed them by Christmas.

For it is lead singer Laura Donnely that commands all of the attention on record, with me falsely believing for a short while that Leki Mera was the name of a singer/songwriter, another in a long line of thoroughly cool females that have been hitting the UK music industry in waves over the past few years. Indeed, if I was to try and explain their sound, I would perhaps pin their efforts somewhere between Lana Del Rey and Enya.

We have the cold nonchalance of ‘Born To Die’ and ‘Video Games’ fused with an atmospheric easy listening vibe that floats away on the breeze, yet the more electronic flair associated with Ellie Goulding and La Roux saves their efforts from bordering too close to mundane. In fact it is the more progressive touches, grabbing at disparate influences, that see the band slotting in between record collections alongside the ethereal Sigur Ros or The XX’s revived cult of shoe-gaze.

Despite having no clear stand-out track, Leki Mera are refreshing in their lack of formula, producing an album that naturally buoys about between easily recognisable cultural touchstones whilst never bowing down to fully ape another performers style.

Acclaim should not be hard to garner for Turn All Memory To White Noise, although a firm spot on rotation may prove as elusive to pin down as the band are to categorically pigeonhole.

Venue: Turn All Memory To White Noise
Support Band: Just Music