Released last year in Australia without even the tiniest tinge of label support, Shoes & You, now picked up by the low-key Smokeylung label, has found its way to American shores. If you have a penchant for hard-to-describe, yet entirely engaging songwriting, this should just thrill you to death.
From the opening instrumental, "I Feel From Space", which moves with the same sort of eerie feel made famous by Elysian Fields, to "Black and White Cats", with its upbeat tempo and synthesizer madness, and "Your Sweet Shoe", in which Hope Sandoval-esque vocals and David Roback-style guitar swirlings create a faithful Mazzy Star mood, it's fairly clear that Lacto-Ovo is quite hard to categorize. "Smurf" opens with a riff similar to the Eagles' "Hotel California", but morphs into a fusion of rockabilly, gothic Americana and surf. How this works I'm not sure, but surprisingly enough, it does. The band returns to the surf-inspired theme on "River", but this time around it's a more straightforward take -- and equally successful. On "Simply Dim", Lacto-Ovo creates a somber soundscape with vocals that sound like Echobelly's Sonya Aurora Madan at her most restrained. "Blue Shoes" and "El Warrico" follow in a similar vein; in fact, if you're trying to compare Lacto-Ovo to any band, Echobelly would probably be the best bet. The main difference is that Lacto-Ovo doesn't trap themselves in familiarity; they have more diverse yearnings, and accordingly, a more well-rounded sound.
If you enjoy the uncertain moment between one track and the next, and the stylistic surprises that ensue when listening to a wholly unpredictable album, Shoes & You is the perfect listen. Lacto-Ovo will release a new album in a few months, so you may want to pick up Shoes & You as a primer -- but when their newest batch music comes out, don't expect more of the same. They've probably moved on to something else by now.
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