Listen: The Books, Lost and Safe

By By Ryan Michael McBee

Thursday, April 21, 2005

The Books

Lost and Safe

Help is on the way! Well, not really, but two dudes from Massachusetts, Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, have found something to sing about anyway on their recently released third LP, Lost and Safe. Both have been wandering around up in the Mass. area for a few years now with their tape recorders gathering an array of bizarre bric-a-brac material to create their copy-paste quasi-noise ensembles. Combining banjos, cellos, found recordings, live vocals and guitar clippings, The Books continues its ground-breaking processes that have set them apart from other sample-based bands, arranging a variety of simultaneously mismatched textures and beats into a well-controlled, cohesive package of luscious wavelengths.

Despite its seemingly meticulous pace, Lost and Safe does well to maintain a sound that many people have come to understand as uniquely “Bookish:” a brand of music that’s both abnormal and smooth. Though this newest release is sure to please an already well-established fan base, it certainly doesn’t take any enormous risks to bring in new ones. Zammuto and de Jong seem to have reached a necessary stalemate of meditation on what they have already done rather than reaching into the realm of what is still to come.

Grade: B-

—Ryan McBee

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