Lansing-Dreiden sounds like the intersection of a high-fashion runway and a feverish dream about 1970s prog-rock. Their music is characterized by a sleek, almost corporate level of polish that masks a deeply experimental heart. You will hear shimmering synthesizers and perfectly stacked vocal harmonies suddenly interrupted by the crunch of heavy metal guitars or the motorik drive of post-punk. It is music that feels both incredibly expensive and strangely hollow, like a beautiful room with no furniture.
What makes them truly distinctive is their commitment to total anonymity and conceptual distance. While most indie bands of the 2000s were striving for authenticity and 'realness,' Lansing-Dreiden operated as a multimedia company, treating their music as just one product in a catalog that included sculpture and literature. This detachment creates a unique listening experience where the songs feel like artifacts from a parallel dimension where pop music never lost its sense of mystery or its sharp, geometric edges.
Start with 'The Incomplete Triangle' to hear their most ambitious fusion of space rock and psychedelic metal. If you prefer something more streamlined and melodic, 'A Sectioned Beam' offers a masterclass in textbook pop perfection, distilled into a short, potent dose of art-rock brilliance.
Lansing-Dreiden is an American band and art collective founded in founded in Miami, Florida, and based in New York City. Their body of work includes music, multimedia artwork (in the form of drawings, collages, sculpture and video), and the literary journal Death Notice. Rather than calling themselves a band, they prefer to be categorized as "a company that sees no distinction between art and commerce." (Seattle Weekly, Feb. 5, 2005) The collective's first full-length record, The Incomplete Triangle, was self-released in 2003. Spin Magazine described it as "dreamy space rock... with a psychedelic metal twist." This was followed by an EP in 2004, A Sectioned Beam. The EP was praised by Time Out New York as "an airtight example of textbook pop perfection." Both titles were reissued by Kemado Records in 2004. Lansing-Dreiden's most recent full length was The Dividing Island, released in 2006. A music video was released for the single "A Line You Can Cross," though the band performing in the video was not Lansing-Dreiden. 2006 also saw the release of D.I. By D.D., a remix album of The Dividing Island produced by Dazzle D. While their music itself has been met with a fairly warm reception, the group has been criticized in the musical press for self-consciously cultivating an air of obscurity. Lansing-Dreiden have responded, in turn, that they are shy.
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); art pop, synth-pop (subgenres)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); art pop, synth-pop (subgenres)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); art pop, post-punk, psychedelic rock (subgenres)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); art pop, synth-pop (subgenres)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares studio polished, layered dense, analog warmth (production style); mysterious, dreamy, wistful (moods)
Shares art pop, post-punk, library, indie rock (signature)
Shares art pop, post-punk, psychedelic rock, indie rock (signature)
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