Fire Shepherds is Liverpudlian duo Loka’s debut album, a fact that may surprise those of you that remember them from Ninja Tune’s Xen Cuts compilation from 2000. Like fellow Ninja artists Jaga Jazzist and Cinematic Orchestra, Loka’s prime musical concern is the space where film soundtracks collide with beat propelled jazz.
Opening tracks Safe Self Tester and Meet Dad both carry an air of the jazz/rock fusions of yesteryear, and it is on Airfling that things mature. Here what could be loosely termed ‘Scandinavian Jazz’ meets the mystifying cool of art house film soundtracks – you could easily imagine this scoring a Seijun Suzuki film. Follow up track Freda Mae continues the theme, adding interesting beat rhythms to keep things interesting. The remainder of the album returns to the by now all too familiar jazz/rock/cinema formula.
Loka have chosen to make music in a genre with a lot of landmark, revolutionary albums in it. What perhaps make Loka something slightly special is the way in which the music is able to conjure up such an atmosphere that it almost fills in the (missing) visual information of a film. Through the addition of a propelled beat and some nifty production, Fire Shepherds guides you through its own narrative, with its own series of set pieces.
Fire Shepherds is without a doubt recommended listening, but the album is more of an evolution than a revolution, and relatively small evolution at that.
Released 27th March 2006
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