Album Review: Ask the Dust by Lorn

If you name an electro album after a John Fante novel, you're asking for it. And indeed, it's hard to see what Lorn's getting at with that comparison, assuming that some kind of comparison or connection is implied, although there's a gloominess at the heart of both the novel and this album that proves a pretty tenuous link. That said, the music really is very good.

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The first outsider signing to Flying Lotus’ LA-centric Brainfeeder label for his 2010 debut ‘Nothing Else’, Illinois’ Lorn was immediately detached from his peers; his glitches and groans evoked a gloom far from coastal azure skies. In reaction to the “cold and strict” (his words) design of album one, this Ninja Tune-released follow-up finds Lorn embracing a more organic approach to his craft. But don’t expect instant-click accessibility: this is ambitious electronic music rewarding persistence.

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Marcos Ortega seems like a nice enough guy when you see him walk down the street. Yet, when he puts the weight of the name Lorn on his shoulders, the unassuming Milwaukee gentleman becomes a cerebral pan-dimensional beast that uses electronic incantations to draw power from realms unknown. He ceases being the man, and becomes a conduit of ancient and mysterious forces.

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With instrumental hip-hop currently undergoing something of a renaissance, Marcos Ortega becomes the latest established name to join Ninja Tune's increasingly bass-orientated roster. At the time signed to Steven Ellison's LA-based Brainfeeder imprint, the Illinois-hailing youngster came to prominence in 2010 via the sensory nature of his debut album, Nothing Else. Now, with 12 new productions, comes his sophomore album.Ask the Dust, named in tribute to John Fante's cult 1939 novel, is purposed to depart from the self-described "cold and strict" confines of his previous output.

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For the uninitiated majority, Burial’s early oeuvre is a simple portrait: a portrait of a place and time, rather than a person’s place within it. At first glance, at least, it’s a bird’s eye view of suburbia that soars unsettlingly close to the curb and scrapes its wings against the gutter. A sound that hits home like a molotov cocktail tossed through your window, but doesn’t look you in the eye and put its feet up until superimposed to the streetlamp-lit alleys one imagines it lurched from.

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For his second album, Ask the Dust, Milwaukee DJ Lorn jumped the pond, signing with UK-based Ninja Tune, after being one of the few DJs settled elsewhere to sign on with FlyLo's L. A. -based Brainfeeder for first release Nothing Else.

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The producer has thrown down another musical challenge that’s well worth rising to. Ian Roullier 2012 Lorn celebrates his switch from LA’s Brainfeeder label to its kindred UK spirit, Ninja Tune, with his follow-up to 2010’s Nothing Else, a landmark album of twisted electronics and cracked melodies. That album, Lorn’s full debut, saw him gain the support of fellow sonic samurai Amon Tobin, who he recently supported on the stunning ISAM tour, and earned him a flurry of praise.

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