IN THE STORE:
LAZER SWORD
Advance release LP/CD/Digital on Innovative Leisure
Stones Throw is now offering an exclusive presale on the debut, self titled album by Lazer Sword of Innovative Leisure Records. Innovative Leisure (IL) is an imprint originating from Stones Throw employee, Nate Nelson. Lazer Sword is Bryant Rutledge (Low Limit) and Antaeus Roy (Lando Kal) who wrote and recorded the album in their former San Francisco stomping grounds before Rutledge moved to Los Angeles and Roy to Berlin. While the pair have dabbled in mixes, remixes and singles (including The Golden Handshake EP for the hotly tipped Numbers label), never until now have they realized a cohesive body of work.
It also finds them in the midst of a few friends guesting on the album including Antipop Consortium’s M. Sayyid, Freestyle Fellowship MC Myka 9, bizarro funk crooner Zackey Force Funk and Bay area hyphy don Turf Talk. But it’s the Lazer Sword boys who truly shine here, whether it’s the ghostly samples, skittering percussion and vocoder funk of first single “Batman” or the hip-hop stomp and swirling synths of album opener “Tar.” Detailed and intricate, Lazer Sword is certainly suitable for headphones, but with beats that slap this hard, these songs were made to rattle speakers and rumble dancefloors.
The double vinyl LP & CD both come packaged as an opening gatefold with a futuristic art layout by Swedish illustrator Kilian Eng.