Cloak and Cipher | Fun and Laughter EP

VINYL FORMAT. The LP version includes bonus 12" of the Fun and Laughter EP, on vinyl for the first time, and code to digitally download the album and EP! Land of Talk's sophomore LP Cloak and Cipher marks an electric step forward for the band musically and sonically, establishing vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Elizabeth Powell as one of Canada's most exciting new musical voices. Joining Powell on the album are Eoin O Laoghaire (bass) and Andrew Barr (drums), as well as special guests drawn from the Montreal music scene and beyond including Patrick Watson and members of Stars, Wintersleep, Besnard Lakes, Arcade Fire and Esmerine. The follow up to 2008's critically adored debut LP Some Are Lakes, Cloak and Cipher's ten tracks were recorded in Montreal's Breakglass Studios in the Fall of 2009 with producer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown), the return to the studio a homecoming of sorts after nearly two years of life on the road that was punctuated by the release of 2009's Fun and Laughter EP. This record is the document of Powell's past and future, cleaved together. In those teenage years, an analog child, her recordings were strictly to 4-track tape. Cloak and Cipher's songs were roughed out in the digital Garageband software, a first for Powell. It afforded her the space to return to her old process - isolated, quiet, layered construction. Realized in the studio, these songs became vast yet intricate: expansive arrangements anchored by taut instrumentation. The lyrics are borrowed newspaper headlines, veiled confessions, and passages from books, annihilated and morphed into song. Tracks like "Hamburg, Noon" swing tensely between acrobatic vocals and rumbling guitars while "Swift Coin" roars to the fore like an eviscerating siren; exploding into a rollicking and joyous guitar anthem. The halfway point, "The Hate I Won't Commit," featuring a piano solo from Patrick Watson, weaves between abrasive and gentle, expanding through choral backing vocals and distressed, emotive pleas from Powell. "Quarry Hymns" is the sweetest and saddest Land of Talk you will hear, insistently driven by Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara on drums. The record concludes with the dreamy and ethereal "Better and Closer" gently rocking you asunder.