Lemmus Lemmus - ST (2008)
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Cover art by Indra Santiago
The foundations of Lemmus Lemmus were laid by Joel Ron, a part time
musician and an enthusiastic record collector, and Noam Rapaport, a
prominent musician and an accomplished keyboardist.
The long time personal friends had a creative meeting around the first
demo of the song "Hands of Time", in which the prospect of creative
musical collaboration seemed inevitable. Eddie Ron followed soon
after, from which point onwards Lemmus Lemmus started the enduring
process which has resulted in their elaborate & critically acclaimed
debut album "Chameleon Mood Swing" (released July 2004).
The meeting between creative souls, whose main objective is the
manifestation of their dreams, can be extremely potent.
Chameleon Mood Swing was created and recorded during a period of 22 months, having extensive intervals between recording sessions. Throughout this period, the members of Lemmus Lemmus have set a simple goal: To express their musical aspirations and implement individual visions within a band, with as few limitations as possible.
This was a process of musical evolution and personal growth, a lengthy
path which has concluded in a psychedelically tinted album and a
genuine emotional statement.
A couple of years have passed in which 3 the principle creators of Lemmus Lemmus have been writing, composing, and playing around with arrangements.
Re-joined by vocalist Eliya Scemama (who teamed up with Lemmus Lemmus on the 1st album), bass player Tsoof Philosoph, & drummer Or Barnea - the band went into the studio for a new adventure.
And so, after a long period of extensive recordings, new exciting soundscapes have started to emerge. Additional sounds have been contributed by Benny Dgubas on sitar, Smadar Peleg on flute, & Zohar Cohen with his Mellotron.
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"Chameleon Mood Swing" (2004) - Comments and Reviews:
On Chameleon Mood Swing, Lemmus Lemmus sound uncannily like early Pink Floyd, with heavy echoes of both Floyd's Syd Barret phase and the several-years-after-Syd-left era. There are similarly spooky keyboard textures in particular (on both Hammond organs and Mellotrons), along with glissando guitar lines, filtered vocals, folky strummed acoustic guitar, doomy drum rolls, eerie disembodied vocals, and miscellaneous strange sucked-into-vacuum effects. It all adds up to a sense of floating through space, which of course was the sensation evoked by many an early Pink Floyd recording.
Would this have existed if Pink Floyd hadn't? Almost certainly not, but that doesn't mean this isn't enjoyable on its own terms, if for nothing more than the sonic pleasure of hearing this early British psychedelic style executed so well (entirely without synthesizers, digital keyboards, modules, or samplers, as the credits make a point of noting).
Unlike much stuff so grounded in the past, it's not bereft of good tunes either, with pleasing melancholy chord progressions motoring songs like "Better Off With You." There's an even hazier lyrical focus than there was in vintage Pink Floyd, the vocals often sounding like dissolving clouds over the horizon, with the female guest lead singing of Elia Semama on "Better Off With You -- Part 2" providing a welcome change of pace.
One could even go as far as to say that fans of the early Pink Floyd sound might be better off with this than with whatever new recordings Pink FLoyd themselves might come up with in the wake of this 2004 release.
Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide
Filled with the sound of the Mellotron ‘chameleon mood swing' by Lemmus Lemmus (the Latin name for the lemming) is a dream-laden journey that floats off into prog/psych territories with consummate ease. Throughout the album a relaxed pace is maintained with standout tracks ‘hands of time' and ‘ silly princess' achieving a fragile beauty.
Phil McMullen - Terrascope
"Lemmus Lemmus" (2008) - Comments and Reviews:
Dance of the Lemmus by Dag Erik Asbjørnsen
The most outstanding rock albums (Revolver, Kid A) often have one thing in common: They simply create their own, unique sound universe where only their own laws apply.
Now, prepare for the sensational Lemmus Lemmus experience, ten tracks able to take you to strange places where few humans have been for many years.
Happen starts with an eerie, high-pitched keyboard sound, as if you're just about to experience a near-death experience.
Faust and Roger Waters used similar tricks years ago as preludes for trips to hell or nocturnal hitchhiking, but this time Alice is entering a much happier and more surreal place.
The magical mystery Lemmus universe is filled with hushed voices, space whispers, whopping octave bass, slow snare drum pulses, mournful Hammond organ, backwards sounds, sitars, tamburas and percussion. Oh, and the guitars are really nice too - small bottleneck details, interstellar squeaks, jangling melody lines or something more exotic.
Guitarwise, it's as close you ever will get to a track featuring Jorma Kaukonen and Syd Barrett at the same time. The lyrics are also eight miles high or beyond: “Spread your wings and leave the ground, drifting home without a sound”.
Yeah, home is where the heart is, the time machine has flown us to the new summer of love. We're unsure if this is the past or the future!
Chasing A Ghost calms down with its emphasis on acoustic instruments (nice sitars!) and some distant female harmony vocals. A way-too-short guitar and organ rave-up follows straight into the grandiose Feathers On Your Body, a track with a strong Eastern feeling best appreciated in a dimly lit room filled with incense and peppermints by your own choice.
The textures are surprisingly light as acoustic guitar and slight percussion are replacing the common rock backing of bass and drums. Various guitar and organ sounds are scattered around to good effect.
This track is a winner! Some unexpected TV noise suddenly wakes us from the trance and Fame of the Shrew comes along as a cheesy interlude with a happy-go-lucky feeling like a cross between Paul McCartney and Bonzo Dog Band.
The next two tracks, The Angels We Thought We Should Be and Smiling Back, strongly recalls the more acoustic moments on Pink Floyds mid-70s concept albums or some weird folk music of the last years,but yet Lemmus Lemmus manage to add some unique elements on their own.
Me Chewing On Your Sonar Heart regains full atom heart power, so-to-say, with the most clever combination of anything-in-the-Floyd-sound 1967-1972 since Porcupine Tree's On The Sunday Of Life.
My Stars, My Moon, My Love develops from gentle strumming on a electric guitar into a psychedelic ragamala with sitar and tablas – this is the spot on the album which George Harrison would heartily approve!
Your Dream Revisited indeed takes us further away from reality into a complex and surreal mixture of sound collages that wouldn't have sounded displaced on an Olivia Tremor Control-album. To wind it all up, Violet & Blue finally comes as a calming coda with warbled female vocals, mellotrons and delightful flutes. As the track is getting near its end you'll hear shimmering, high-pitched organ notes much like
the coda on Cirrus Minor. After more than half an hour in the psychedelic wilderness you are finally entering paradise. However, you will soon feel the urge to restart this exciting journey!
So, you may ask, what sets Lemmus Lemmus out from the hordes struggling to unleash the mysteries inside the gates of dawn? Well, for one they surely make a strong contrast to TV Personalities! Lemmus Lemmus are creating sublime, arty soundscapes far beyond some three-chord reduction of Lucifer Sam. Reversed guitars and other effects are used with good taste and never overdone.
This reflects a solid knowledge of the authentic late 1960s sound. Naturally, there are no digital synthesizers here but something that fits a lot better - vintage mellotrons, Hammond and Hohner ‘65 organs.
Noam Rapaport is among the very few keyboard players to do things in a similar vein to Richard Wright – not being a Keith Emerson-type doing endless solos to show off, his subtle and clever minor chord textures were the very heart of the Pink Floyd sound. It wouldn't have been the same without him. And Noam simply brings greatness to the Lemmus sound.
But to dub this “retro-rock” would be an insult. Lemmus Lemmus is indeed a part of the 21st Century along with Dungen, Espers, Big Boss Man, The Bees and countless other artists accused of doing their things “retro” – I consider this term to be useless when facing music! Did anyone accuse Shostakovich of composing music for the 19th Century because his main orchestral works built on symphonic form?
With this album Lemmus Lemmus have done something sensational - this music has many layers when you start to study it. What you will find here is true depth, invention and true greatness immune to the passing of time, similar to legendary underground classics such as July, SF Sorrow (Pretty Things), An Invisible World Revealed (Krokodil), Armageddon (PLJ Band), My Solid Ground or 666 (Aphrodite's Child). Believe me, Lemmus Lemmus is as good as these and my favourite album so far of 2008.
If the world only knew!
Dag Erik Asbjørnsen
Author of
Scented Gardens of the Mind: A Comprehensive Guide to the Golden Era of Progressive Rock
Cosmic Dreams at Play: Guide to German Progressive and Electronic Rock
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Noam Rapaport
