Montreal’s psychedelic post-rock quintet, LAE, has put two brand new videos into construction for release over the coming months as the deluxe 2xLP version of their debut LP, Break The Clasp, is about to hit the pressing plant for an early Springtime release. A visual depiction of the diverse track, “Sister,” which features some of the heaviest moments on Break The Clasp and one of the few scathing deliveries from vocalist Steve Austin (Today Is The Day) on the album, has been commissioned to David Hall of Handshake Inc. (Brutal Truth, Today is the Day, Maryland Deathfest: the Movie). Additionally, the members of LAE are working on a video for the album’s magnificently heartbreaking “To Give You The Stars Above” anthem in-house.
Both new visual accompaniments to Break The Clasp will see release late this Winter or early Spring, just as LAE prepares to release the mammoth vinyl edition of the album, which is currently being readied for the pressing plant. The final details on the pressing are still being locked up, but both platters will be constructed of 180-gram or thicker heavyweight vinyl with a colored run, and will be housed in a double gatefold jacket with spot varnish on the front and back, with poly-lined black sleeves and a digital download card. Preorders for the 2xLP edition of Break The Clasp will be available in the coming weeks with a variety of package options.
Stream Break The Clasp in its entirety at THIS LOCATION.
Break The Clasp is out now on The Compound and Battleground Records. The six-panel, spot-varnished, eco-friendly digipak can be ordered HERE, the digital via BandCamp, iTunes, Google Play and more.
A monumentally dejected yet inspiring nearly hour-long psychedelic journey through thirteen dynamic movements, LAE’s Break The Clasp saw its initial digital and CD release at the end of November as a collaborative effort between The Compound Recs, Battleground Records and LAE themselves. Recorded in full analog in main songwriter Marc Lucas Ablasou’s woodshop in Montreal by Steve Austin of Today Is The Day and Austin Enterprises, who provided lead vocals to the entire album, the lineup is completed by Ronald Jean-Gilles, Serge Nakauchi Pelletier, Stephane Desgroseilliers. Re-envisioning their original anthems — penned under initial moniker LAE-TSEU in the mid-late 1990s — alongside new songs, the band recorded live on vintage 1970s equipment utilizing a range of guitars, basses, drums, accordion, trumpet, saws, organs, pianos, electronics and a multitude of vocal styles into a four-part storyline of life, love, hope and death. Following several overdub sessions at Austin Enterprises where the songs were mixed and mastered, the album was shrouded by otherworldly artwork by Sonny Kay (The VSS, Angel Hair, Gold Standard Laboratories label), completing this transcendentally gloomy yet beautifully delivered opus.
LAE has also been intensely writing new material for their follow-up to Break The Clasp. Check out a photo set of the band in the frozen Montreal Winter on the band’s official Facebook page HERE.
“…the heart-on-sleeve frontman that Austin occasionally embodies is on full display here, with only snippets of backwoods dementia seeping through. And the band has created an ideal atmosphere, borrowing liberally from the likes of Slint and Tortoise with mesmeric rhythms and askew harmonies, while adding dollops of psych and the occasional metallic bombast that’s actually reminiscent of early TITD. 8/10” – Decibel Magazine
“The resultant record is a fragmentary, shifting record, switching between Slint-like passages of angular guitar and sung-spoken vocals and abrasive assaults (witness the caustic fuzz at the core of ‘Sister’), punctuated by acoustic sketches in the shape of ‘Broken Knee’, ‘Let Me Die In The Memory Of Her Arms’ and ‘Space Travel’…” – The Quietus
“…the vitality in the 13 tracks (yes, even the crushingly slow ones) is fresh to the point of its newness, and even the parts meant to be abrasive, opener ‘Sexy Sadie’ or pieces of ’17 Queen’ for example, hold onto a wonderful depth the mix and a feeling of texture that feeds Break the Clasp’s otherworldly spirit and brings you along its path of consuming strangeness. Austin is a presence, but by no means the star, and the whole band Lae shines across Break the Clasp’s fascinating span. A debut no one knew they were awaiting, but they were.” – The Obelisk
“#22 (out of 100) album of 2014.” – Emoragei Magazine
“…echoes psychedelic progressive rock and post-rock but the overall picture is far more expansive… wholly unique and escapes categorization.” – American Aftermath
For all interview and review coverage as well as all wholesale/label inquiries on LAE and Break The Clasp contact dave@earsplitcompound.com.
http://www.laetseu.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LAE-Band/614579391922975
http://laemusic.bandcamp.com
http://www.thecompoundrecs.com
http://www.thecompound.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/thecompoundrecs
http://www.earsplitdistro.com
http://www.facebook.com/battlegroundrecords
