What is most immediately arresting about Lymbyc Systym is how warm the band manages to feel, particularly on its most recent effort, Shutter Release. For a duo which has made its name blurring the edges of electronic music with indie-oriented post rock, thats almost certainly not the first modifier that springs to most minds. Sweeping sonic vistas and grandiose crescendos abound, but LS manages to make them sound as if they come out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees, from the very earth itself, rather than as cosmic radiation or the midnight revelations of a computer-aided consciousness. The electronic influence is subtle, supporting rather than defining the music, and that allows the music to breathe and swell under the obvious influence of humans working with something very specific in mind, rather than simply being an agglomeration of neat ideas pasted together to make something then titled a song. The programming is so subtle and well used that there are times where it is nearly indiscernible from the acoustic instrumentation, if you arent listening with an overly critical ear. Thats easy to do with this album; it draws you in and makes its world the only one material, at least for its scant 40 minutes. With Helios, Unlearn. NICHOLAS HALL
Thu., Jan. 7, 9 p.m., 2010
