lto: storybook

LTO is a member of mysterious electronic collective Old Apparatus. Their music -- anonymous, dark, ghostly, subterranean -- was reminiscent of garage and grime scenes, but sheened with a nocturnal miasma and a fierce intellect. Acclaim for Old Apparatus is widespread, with very positive reviews coming from The Wire, Dummy Mag, The Quietus, Gilles Peterson, among plenty more. Storybook combines gentle, dulcet synthesis with deep percussive lines, piano dexterity, and alien-landscape sound-design, softly echoing in-and-out of the space, like Katie Gately remixed into Brian Eno's ambient records, or the poise of Max Richter filtered through Chris Clark's production lens. It has fluidity and elasticity, a human-ness that enwraps the mechanical parts. A highly accomplished pianist (indeed, a piano teacher in his civilian life), LTO's astute musicality is the foundation stone beneath the magic and abstractions of Storybook. 180 gram vinyl.