With two mighty 12s from the husband and wife duo of Alfred Weisberg-Roberts (aka Daedelus) and Laura B. Darlington, The Long Lost album continues the story of sad vocals of a poetic bygone age with Alfred’s delicate, mostly acoustic melodies and infrequent vocals.

If you loved ‘Amiss’, ‘Wobegone’ and ‘Art Of Kissing’ you will love the rest of the album. Not that its all the same but rather further explorations of their musical relationship since the Harry Potter ode ‘Muggle Born’, ‘Now & Sleep’ on Exquisite Corpse and ‘If We Should’ from Love To Make Music To.

‘Sibilance’ finds Laura doing ‘battle’ with Alfred on a sea shanty chorus with a broken samba beat but those that know the mighty D know that’s he’s not just a Dandy with an impressive box (I bet that jacket on the cover isn’t going on tour though). He’s rather expert on the bass clarinet which dominates ‘Overmuch’ (also check out Denies The Days Demise), the romance of a 1940/50s film scores; ‘Ballroom Dance Club’ and ‘Siren Song’ both reflect those days of past glory, the accordion and guitar.

To fill in on a bit of history, the pair met in the High School Orchestra in Santa Monica, Alfred on double-bass and Laura on flute. They went on to become partners in the ballroom dance club and I for one can vouch that Ballroom Dancing can be as intimate as the Strictly Come Dancing shows so I’m not surprised that they went on to be sweethearts of the dancefloor.

But like teenagers it’s equally not that surprising that they split up. And then after a 4 year gap, they go and fall in love all over again and get married. It will certainly make touring easier on their relationship and the tour starts this week (see below details).

It seems odd that one day they are at the Low End Theory Club with Flying Lotus and soon they’ll be on Radio 4’s Loose Ends!

Anyway, back to the album, Laura Darlington’s voice is almost mono tone but this is the counterpoint that gives the tracks a type of fairy tale quality; particularly ‘Past Perfect’. There’s a couple of Tunng type tracks but their liking for cats is a bit scary on ‘Cat Fancy’. My current favourites are the last two tracks, ‘Domestics’ and the one where they seem to get it all together, ‘Awash’. Oh! And ‘Ballroom Dance Club’ and ‘Regrets Only’.

Also worth noting this is a Ninja Tune release (not Alpha Pup, Plug Research, Laboratory Instinct or any of those other West Coast labels that have released Daedelus records in the past) so I suspect Ninja Tune are awash with the Long Lost as much as I am. And don’t you just love the cover?

Forthcoming dates:
05 March 2009 La Case a Chocs, Neuchatel
06 March 2009 Club Zukunft, Zurich
07 March 2009 Les Trinitaires, Metz
11 March 2009 Bar Borsa, Vicenza
12 March 2009 Batofar, Paris
13 March 2009 Paradiso, Amsterdam
14 March 2009 Rotown, Rotterdam
16 March 2009 The Boileroom, Guildford
19 March 2009 Bardens Boudoir, London
20 March 2009 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
21 March 2009 Loose Ends on BBC Radio 4 London
21 March 2009 Stealth, Nottingham
22 March 2009 The Freebutt, Brighton

Reviewed: The Long Lost - The Long Lost (Ninja Tune) Cat. No: ZENCD133 Release date: 2nd March 2009
Tracklist:
01. The Art Of Kissing (2:56)
02. Amiss (2:57)
03. Sibilance (3:18)
04. Overmuch (3:15)
05. Past Perfect (5:12)
06. Ballroom Dance Club (2:36)
07. Siren Song (3:03)
08. Colour (3:33)
09. Regrets Only (3:50)
10. Cat Fancy (2:34)
11. Wobegone (2:28)
12. Finders Keepers (3:42)
13. Domestics (2:28)
14. Awash (2:17)

Links:
www.thelonglost.com
www.myspace.com/findthelonglost
Gilles Peterson :: 26th February 2009 :: Tony Allen & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Ft. Natty - Afro Beat Disco
Gabi Hermandez - Morning Glow (Test)
The Long Lost - Woebegone (Ninja Tune)
www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing
www.myspace.com/dan_kozyndan
Low End Theory Club www.lowendtheoryclub.com/theclub.html