II

LNZNDRF’s II is a mass hypnotism, somehow both thunderous and trance-inducing. Recorded in extensive, shamanistic jam sessions at Austin’s Public Hi-Fi in September 2019 and later edited down to give it shape, these songs feel like Right Now, with some toes testing the waters of the future.

The brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf  (The National), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut) and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear) are in headlamps and spelunking gear, descending into a somnambulant space. Album deep cut Ringwoodite, with it’s skittering, lithe and precise drums, is a summer sparkler of song — whizzing by at such a clip it leaves you giddily following its traces. On its heels are the computer lover Gaskiers and come- on-slow motorik anthem Stowaway that, while not connected by sound, work in tandem to put LNZNDRF fully in the canon of strange and indelible krautrock.

Its incantations seem to beckon the dystopia of present day as much as they beckon the Big Mystery awaiting us when we finally bust through its barrier. It won’t be a utopia but it will at least be something different. As it goes on the lysergic post-punk standout You Still Rip: "We'll live like fruitless trees towards endless breeze linked as we please, the burning bridges smolder in our wake.” Red rover, red rover, send LNZNDRF over.

Tracklisting

1. The Xeric Steppe
2. Brace Yourself
3. You Still Rip
4. Cascade
5. Chicxulub
6. Ringwoodite
7. Gaskiers
8. Stowaway