Loka emerged at the end of the 1990s from Liverpool's fertile alt-electronica scene; at the time of its 2006 debut album the group was a duo consisting of Karl Webb and Mark Kyriacou. With
Passing Place,
Loka is now only Kyriacou (plus members of the the group's touring ensemble), and if anything, the band's sound is more cinematic and sonically ambitious than it's ever been. That's dangerous, of course -- cinematic ambition has been the downfall of more than one restless DJ or producer -- but on this album
Loka does a good job of harnessing grandiose tendencies while still giving full rein to a large-scale musical vision. "The Tower" makes better use of oboe, flute, harpsichord, and spy-movie jazz than you might think possible; "The Beauty in Darkness" makes similarly good use of French horns and benefits greatly from the rather
Björk-ish presence of Colombian singer Lido Pimienta. When Kyriacou and crew fall down, it's more endearing than annoying: "Sam Star" suffers from a messy drum sound and precious vocals, but somehow manages to avoid sounding pretentious, and "Temporary External" and "The Sound Stars Make" both try just a bit too hard to be
Nino Rota and
Philip Glass at the same time, but each fails in a particularly lovely way. Many pop musicians claim not to be bound by pop music conventions;
Loka really walks that talk, and actually pulls it off more often than not. ~ Rick Anderson