Laidback London duo Lung Dart dish up warm and fuzzy electronics that hold a mirror to the sounds enveloping their every day.
Tuning into their intimate combination of field recordings, clapped out organs and bleached beats is like peering through a window into a cosy firelit room on a cold night.
Dip-dyed vocal melodies complete Tim Clay and James Rapson’s sonic patchwork, with broken refrains that slip gently in and out of sense.
Last year’s debut EP Ebbs laid out the pair’s stall as bonafide aural architects as they eschewed the DIY bedroom-pop template for something far richer and deeper.
They’re now preparing to release their first mini-album As I Lay Drying for PRAH Recordings on 2 September, with a looped-up listening party/installation happening in Peckham, London, tomorrow (26 August).
Here, Tim and James talk us through the songs that have influenced their sound...
Songs that have directly influenced our music:
William Basinski - dlp1.1
Disintegration Loops was our introduction to the concept of allowing a process to dictate the final outcome of a piece. This, along with the idea of looping a phrase until it fell apart, was hugely influential when making As I Lay Drying.
Arthur Russell - You Can Make Me Feel Bad
One of the first songs we recorded together as Lung Dart was a loose cover of You Can Make Me Feel Bad. Arthur Russell’s music spanned so many different genres which is definitely something we’re aiming to do with our music.
Pierre Henry - Gene Piece, R.A.I Bird
In the early days of Lung Dart we’d run around recording sounds on our phones to send to each other. This gave us both faith that we were on the same page with the kind of music we were trying to make. The use of everyday sounds still plays a large part in our music.
Roy Orbison - Crying
Roy Orbison just has such an amazing voice and this song makes us want to weep. On As I Lay Drying, this is the kind of traditional pop song that we’ve attempted to apply some Basinski-esque processes to. Hopefully this creates a sense of familiarity before things start to crumble. Also, the initial aim of the song Squeeze was to sound like Roy Orbison singing Cats whilst being lowered down a well.
Recorded Live by Alan Lomax - No More My Lawd
We used to spend hours and hours going through the Alan Lomax archive on YouTube when we first realised that we were completely aligned in terms of how we felt about music. All these amazing sounds and situations, his videos and records are amazing historical documents. And the sound quality of the recordings is great.
Rhos Male Voice Choir - Llef
There’s no better sound than a group of people singing together. We chose this song because we could find it on spotify easily, but all kinds of group singing is 10/10. Heard this incredible track the other day on Sout Al Khaleej Radio with a children’s choir and adult choir doing some kind of call and response, but Shazam said it was some Argentinian reggae so we’ll probably never find out what it was.
Otis G Johnson - Time To Go Home
The textures in this are amazing, and that persistent Hammond organ rhythm. We actually bought a Hammond organ drum machine because of Otis G Johnson, which we used on the track Totem from the record. The throwaway nature of this recording is amazing too, quite a few tracks on the record are live room recordings. Blemishes can really add to the beauty of something.
Songs that have affected us as people:
Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes
Tim - I once listened to this song 24 times in one day. Everyone feels shit sometimes for whatever reason and when I was having a bit of a rough time a while ago this song genuinely helped me.
Blowing Free - You Gotta Be
James - Sax Moods was the first tape I remember loving as a child. I actually had Volume 1 which isn’t on Spotify but I think you get the idea. Anyway, this is the reason I wanted to play the saxophone as a child and probably why I still make music today.
Outkast - Spottieottiedopaliscious
Tim - I had one of those perfect world aligning moments with this song a couple of years ago, I was with about 15 of my best friends in a club, fucked at about 4am and the DJ played this. So much hugging and dancing.
https://www.facebook.com/lungdart/
Tuning into their intimate combination of field recordings, clapped out organs and bleached beats is like peering through a window into a cosy firelit room on a cold night.
Dip-dyed vocal melodies complete Tim Clay and James Rapson’s sonic patchwork, with broken refrains that slip gently in and out of sense.
Last year’s debut EP Ebbs laid out the pair’s stall as bonafide aural architects as they eschewed the DIY bedroom-pop template for something far richer and deeper.
They’re now preparing to release their first mini-album As I Lay Drying for PRAH Recordings on 2 September, with a looped-up listening party/installation happening in Peckham, London, tomorrow (26 August).
Here, Tim and James talk us through the songs that have influenced their sound...
Songs that have directly influenced our music:
William Basinski - dlp1.1
Disintegration Loops was our introduction to the concept of allowing a process to dictate the final outcome of a piece. This, along with the idea of looping a phrase until it fell apart, was hugely influential when making As I Lay Drying.
Arthur Russell - You Can Make Me Feel Bad
One of the first songs we recorded together as Lung Dart was a loose cover of You Can Make Me Feel Bad. Arthur Russell’s music spanned so many different genres which is definitely something we’re aiming to do with our music.
Pierre Henry - Gene Piece, R.A.I Bird
In the early days of Lung Dart we’d run around recording sounds on our phones to send to each other. This gave us both faith that we were on the same page with the kind of music we were trying to make. The use of everyday sounds still plays a large part in our music.
Roy Orbison - Crying
Roy Orbison just has such an amazing voice and this song makes us want to weep. On As I Lay Drying, this is the kind of traditional pop song that we’ve attempted to apply some Basinski-esque processes to. Hopefully this creates a sense of familiarity before things start to crumble. Also, the initial aim of the song Squeeze was to sound like Roy Orbison singing Cats whilst being lowered down a well.
Recorded Live by Alan Lomax - No More My Lawd
We used to spend hours and hours going through the Alan Lomax archive on YouTube when we first realised that we were completely aligned in terms of how we felt about music. All these amazing sounds and situations, his videos and records are amazing historical documents. And the sound quality of the recordings is great.
Rhos Male Voice Choir - Llef
There’s no better sound than a group of people singing together. We chose this song because we could find it on spotify easily, but all kinds of group singing is 10/10. Heard this incredible track the other day on Sout Al Khaleej Radio with a children’s choir and adult choir doing some kind of call and response, but Shazam said it was some Argentinian reggae so we’ll probably never find out what it was.
Otis G Johnson - Time To Go Home
The textures in this are amazing, and that persistent Hammond organ rhythm. We actually bought a Hammond organ drum machine because of Otis G Johnson, which we used on the track Totem from the record. The throwaway nature of this recording is amazing too, quite a few tracks on the record are live room recordings. Blemishes can really add to the beauty of something.
Songs that have affected us as people:
Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes
Tim - I once listened to this song 24 times in one day. Everyone feels shit sometimes for whatever reason and when I was having a bit of a rough time a while ago this song genuinely helped me.
Blowing Free - You Gotta Be
James - Sax Moods was the first tape I remember loving as a child. I actually had Volume 1 which isn’t on Spotify but I think you get the idea. Anyway, this is the reason I wanted to play the saxophone as a child and probably why I still make music today.
Outkast - Spottieottiedopaliscious
Tim - I had one of those perfect world aligning moments with this song a couple of years ago, I was with about 15 of my best friends in a club, fucked at about 4am and the DJ played this. So much hugging and dancing.
https://www.facebook.com/lungdart/
