My Review: Launder - Happening

 My Review:

Launder - Happening

Prejudice is a free wickedness, because to consider someone crazy is the real madness: one is always in a hurry to do this, poisoning the souls and dirtying the waters.

In music there are those who make their long-distance debut with a double album and pay the price for what I have just mentioned.

I hope this does not happen in the case of those I have decided to talk about.

Consider the passionate John Cudlip, who has just released a sensational album in terms of imagery, intensity, coloured with melodic music full of intense vocals, with a sensual tide of voluminous and captivating sounds.

Filled with diverse influences, it is worth specifying that we are not just inside Dreampop and Shoegaze (although most of it is certainly imbued with them), but rather in a kaleidoscope of references that give the thirteen tracks the feeling of entering multiple dimensions.

We have abundant doses of Alternative, a veiled but present Post-Punk, sprinklings of Brit-Pop and sparks of Indie.

The boy from Los Angeles made use of the collaboration of Nathan Havelu, Bryan DeLeon and Chase Meier who, all together, have managed to beautifully portray the sad and melancholic swirls for a work that has seen the magical production of Sonny DiPerri, known for his work with My Bloody Valentine, Bob Mould and DIIV. 

The song Become features the adorable presence of French singer Soko, who lends an additional touch of class to this debut.

Many of the tracks were written a long time ago, but once this band was in the rehearsal room everything became fluent and clear, giving John the confidence that they all had to be part of the record.

The LA art scene is fraught with effervescent and competent personalities, who were also able to give energy to Cudlip, who has thus managed to find strength and courage for the necessary conviction: Happening sounds like a mature and effective album, with tons of solid sound, it can be visionary and capable of shaking and enveloping the listener.

The scenario, complex and magnetic, nails the listener inside the sonic vicissitudes, in the rivers of guitars blessed for their solidity and aptitude for finding a compromise between rhythm and melody.  

Happening is much more than an account of a period: it is a sonic identity card of the good John's inner mess, showing the world his propensity for research, his seductive curiosity that he skillfully knows how to transfer into songs that sparkle, infect, shake and somehow become a place in which to feel protected.

I believe that it is superfluous to invite you to take a tour in its neighborhood: you have already understood that the scribe guarantees this listening which, I am sure, will conquer you!

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

5th September 2022

https://launder.bandcamp.com/album/happening

https://open.spotify.com/album/1AFBK10RHCuXnHXaTgyonQ?si=o1kcSDvkQQuTMGGzPYCg0w