Lab°

Il est souvent dit que « c’est sur scène que Lab° prend sa forme achevée » et la tournée de leur 4ème album « MüS » ne déroge pas à la règle. Le groupe revient à un live plus brut, plus direct, où la lumière reprend ses droits scénographiques prenant à contre-courant la mode actuelle de la vidéo « à tout prix ». Musicalement, leur dub-rock est à leur image : intègre, sombre, sincère, iconoclaste. Les musiciens ont su créer, au fil des albums et des tournées, un univers très particulier où se mêlent émotions fortes et apaisées ne laissant jamais le spectateur ou l’auditeur sur un acquis, sachant toujours le surprendre. Sur scène, cet univers se déploie en une bourrasque, un tunnel où votre esprit s’engouffre, où le corps se laisse lui aussi emporter car Lab° y développe tout à la fois une fraîcheur et une violence auxquelles personne ne reste insensible.
Impressed by the violent psychedelic form dub music - played live by musicians that is - could take on a classical sound system, Lab's future members - 2 guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a sampling/keys rhythm padder and a architectural sound engineer- came together in July 1998. They trod the sinuous path to rehearsal studios without really knowing what the result would be. The members knew each other but just in the way musicians from a small town (St Germain en Laye) know each other. Some had worked with others whether by recording one's music or previously playing together in different bands. Anyway, the thing to remember is that no one had any experience in dub or reggae music. They were in fact more into dark sound if we may accept the term than jump-around-with-a-smile-on-your-face irie kind of music and they still are...more than ever. 6 months after the first hour of rehearsal, Lab recorded in one night their first album - more in an EP form - released to begin with in a do-it-yourself-way and then in 2000 on their own label MILLE MILLIARDS, distributed by PIAS FRANCE. Underground and specialized medias were pretty interested by "Dubalgan 500mg"'s laboratory test weirdness.Lab's tour life began. If you listen to the first track "Liquide" you'll get a closer idea of what Lab's music is all about: dark, trippy, instrumental and violent. They improvised two tracks "mille milliards" and "500mg" on which Suzanne Thoma ( Octet's female singer) sang. The future form of lab's composition process is in progress. "Taffy Ap", an eleven track dark pop dub LP, was released in 2001. "Massive" and "Io" are good tracks to understand the records meaning. More recorded improvisations are presented: "Io", "horns of bah", "une démarche très naturelle" also with Suzanne Thoma's voice.
Lab's own dub is taking a turn and defines itself. The tone has been given: you'll never find Lab's music where you think it is.
The third LP "Derrière la pluie" released in 2003 is once again amazing in its awareness and by its interest in self evolution. Here, you have deserted spaghetti western atmospheres ("Revient aux témoins") and vivid bursts of screaming electric guitars ("solness"). More than half of the album had been improvised.
« Müs», Lab's last album offers the listener a seizing contraction and a sometimes disturbing vision of Lab's musical universe. The group got together for twenty days to record, firstly in an old Basque Ball court of a farm near Saint Jean De Luz, and secondly in the living room of a 17th century manor in Normandy. Completely improvised, the sessions were then cut up, assembled, mixed, and mastered, resulting in these fourteen tracks on the album. Lab's universe is an initiatory tunnel, whose aesthetic radicalism eludes an inattentive listening of the record. From dub, which was their original trademark, they move on to noisy eruptions, passing through arid atmospheres to extreme rock. Distorted rhythms and sounds shout out images of urban life. The four songs on the album offer a temporary break from the relentless instrumentation of the rest of the album. Each piece is a feeling, a desire. Müs passes from one palpitation to another; sinuous motorways (Enclume), extreme lashing out (Encoprésie), stubborn pop (De Porcelaine, Crystal Krill Killer),urban noise (The Pope And The Bleeding Baby, Nice White Hat), obsessive cinematographic ambiances (Ocho1, La Cigüe), and sections of everyday life (Müs, Angel In My Pocket). Lab play what they breathe.
Lab°'s entire discography on
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