Customer Reviews

Mind Control for Infants

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK, this needs more than a 3-star average, and would have one if some genius hadn't given it 1 star because it wasn't the record he thought it was. I wonder if he's also bought Kierkegaard's 'Either/Or' and given it 1 star because it turned out not to be an Elliott Smith album? (Just to clear things up completely, this is Lotus Eaters, not THE Lotus Eaters, so not even the same band name.)

Anyone who knows any of the work of Aaron Turner (Isis), James Plotkin (Scorn, OLD, Khanate, various excellent solo & collaborative dark ambient works) or Stephen O'Malley (Goatsnake, Sunn O))), Burning Witch, Khanate, Ginnungagap) will both appreciate and be surprised by 'Mind Control for Infants'. It does have some of the disturbing space of Khanate's 'Things Viral' and Plotkin and Mick Harris's 'Collapse'. But there are sweeter, cleaner sounds in here too. There's also an improvisational feel: not noodling 'improv', just the sense of spontaneous strokes and colours that are both impressionistic and EXpressionistic.

The title is very apt; these could almost be an infant's first impressions of the world, in the real stage before the imaginary or the symbolic (to borrow Lacan's psychoanalytic terminology) -- preternaturally wonderful, but also inexplicable and at times terrifying; an endless (and endlessly interrupted) succession of remarkable events without a reliable system for ordering or influencing them. Lotus Eaters show you something that seems to transcend subjective 'reality', but of course you have to abandon any hope of reducing it to the terms of means-end rationality.

You needn't subscribe to my babblings to appreciate this stuff. Turner, Plotkin and O'Malley are certainly three of the most talented -- and intellectually as well as aurally challenging -- artists in American music today. I wholeheartedly recommend 'Mind Control for Infants', along with all their other work.

ambient drone. the name is taken from homer's Odyssey, and strongly relates to the type of music here. the lotus eaters are mythological drug addicts who live on an island in ancient greek times. Odyesseus encounters them and has to drag his men off the island after they taste the lotus flower. this lotus eaters are somewhat a super group, featuring Stephen'o'Malley (sunn O))), khanate, burning witch, etc), Aaron Turner (isis, Old man gloom, etc) and James Plotkin (old, phantomsmaher, khanate, etc). the music it's self is totally atmospheric, very dark, but still pleasant to the ears. it's very relaxing, and very slow, but constantly interesting. the album is beautiful and one of my fave albums eva, totally unique, and the imagery you get from listening to it can be breath-taking. it's a wonderful journey of discovery and mystery. it's music to "zone out" to. once you've been caught by the lotus eaters you'll never want to leave.

what ever category fits the mood of the day, this album should prove to all the new-music and modern classical people that these avant metal-heads mean business. leaving the granite riffs of their usual outfits - Stephen O'Malley: Khanate, Sunn O))), etc., Aaron Turner: Isis, Old Man Gloom, etc., and joining with ambient-noise shape-shifter James Plotkin, these doom rockers create sophisticated tones and textures worthy of "serious" listening. but don't get me wrong, this sounds a bit amateurish - by track 5 it gets muddy, sloppy, lazy, loses focus, and runs out of ideas. on comes the fatigue of strong weed wearing off.

a valiant effort by all measures, but to new-comers to contemporary abstract music, there are much more seasoned, refined, and plain superior practitioners in these areas. dig, and dig.

P.S. to the reviewer below: please don't give something a 1 star because you were mistaking it for something else. that is stupid and wrong.

If you are wondering if this is a new album of the 80s New Romantic group the Lotus Eaters, well you can stop wondering now because it is not!
Although Peter Coyle and Jeremy Kelly feels flattered for having their group name used, this album totally sounds different from the original's guitar-pop based sound.
This album is totally instrumental - ambient, new age, experimental - mixed to a degree that is not really pleasing to the ear.