Lake
Let’s Build a Roof
K-Records
There’s a light jazz feel to Lake, almost as if Steely Dan took a couple of Quaaludes before hitting the studio. Lake builds sophisticated stories, produced with care and attention to detail. The music often soars, leaving the vocalist patiently waiting in front of her microphone until the chords swoop past her again to admit a carefully sculpted space for new thoughts and further words. The female vocalist on “Sing 99 & 90” sounds a bit like Janis Joplin, but without the drug and alcohol problem. She sings in harmony with herself and makes an already ethereal-sounding band positively angelic. When “The Roof Caves In” arrives, you’re fully engaged in the mystical and unworldly sound of Lake, and odd African drums only transport you farther into the magic verdant, foggy, spirit world. I hate to label this fluid and constantly shifting band “New Age” because they are much better than that.
K-Records: http://www.krecs.com • Lake: http://www.laketheband.com
