Curbside Lambsear – No Ordinary Word
Curbside Lambsear are the London duo of Annabelle Mödlinger and Magdalena McLean, and “No Ordinary Word” is the second single from their debut EP, Put Rings On All My Fingers To Weigh Down My Hands, out September 11 on Scenic Route. The two met playing in The Umlauts, McLean also plays viola in caroline, and Curbside Lambsear is where they get to step out of those larger ensembles and follow their instincts. Both are Austrian, both landed in London’s experimental scene by different routes, and the project runs on the specific chemistry of two friends making music together with no one else to answer to.
The sound is a kind of tilted collage: twin voices, viola and live electronics stuck together, pulling from pop, folk, and improvisation while nodding to drone, dub and post-punk. “No Ordinary Word” shows a different side of the EP than the debut single “Man The Door” did, there are hooks here, but also room for the music to wander and blur. It’s the sort of track that sounds handmade in the best way, where you can feel the two of them testing what happens if they follow an idea rather than tidy it up.
By their own account, the EP came together through pure experimentation. All the sounds they felt drawn toward and came to agree on, some of it found, some built, some of it happening by accident while cycling down a narrow lane. That last detail is a good key to the whole thing: this is music that leaves the accidents in and lets them become the point.
Put Rings On All My Fingers To Weigh Down My Hands (Sep. 11, Scenic Route)
