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LADDIO BOLOCKO

Krautrock • United States


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Laddio Bolocko biography
Formed in 1996, Laddio Bolocko were a North American psychedelic rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The lineup consisted of Panicsville's Drew St. Ivany on guitar and Ben Armstrong on bass, along with saxophonist Marcus DeGrazia of Craw and drummer Blake Fleming, formerly of Dazzling Killmen and fresh from a U.S. tour as a member of KK Null's Zeni Geva. Their bizarre moniker was Fleming's altered spelling of Lotteo Balaco, the late owner of a Greek restaurant back in his hometown of Alton, Illinois. Known for their pummeling and mesmerising live performances, Laddio Bolocko played a style of noisy garage-rock featuring an appreciation for krautrock, math rock, no wave, free jazz and Brian Eno's early rock records, which critics consistently compared to Can, This Heat, the Residents and Albert Ayler.

Fleming, DeGrazia, Armstrong and St. Ivany lived in their rehearsal studio in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighbourhood (later temporarily moving to an abandoned ski lodge in the Catskills), improvising music for hours a day and recording it all. The band self-produced two albums and one EP during their brief existence, each self-released in limited quantities via their personal label Hungarian Records: 1997's Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko, 1998's In Real Time and 1999's As If by Remote, the latter two collected in the 2000 compilation As If in Real Time.

Laddio Bolocko eventually fell apart in autumn 2000. Fleming moved the following year to Long Beach, California, where he cofounded the Mars Volta and later formed his own project Electric Turn To Me with DeGrazia. St. Ivany and Armstrong founded the Psychic Paramount in 2002, the spiritual successor to Laddio Bolocko's noise-psych. The quartet's complete discography was posthumously collected in 2002 as The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko, followed by a 2015 compilation of live recordings, Live & Unreleased 1997-2000, both issued by No Quarter Records.

Laddio Bolocko are enthusiastically recommended to fans of Aluk Todolo, Acid Mothers Temple, Boredoms, U SCO, Don Caballero and Circle.


- Gordy, August 2023

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LADDIO BOLOCKO discography


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LADDIO BOLOCKO top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.91 | 2 ratings
Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko
1997
4.00 | 1 ratings
In Real Time
1998

LADDIO BOLOCKO Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

LADDIO BOLOCKO Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

LADDIO BOLOCKO Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
As If in Real Time
2000
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko
2002
4.00 | 1 ratings
Live & Unreleased 1997-2000
2015
0.00 | 0 ratings
'97-'99
2022

LADDIO BOLOCKO Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

3.00 | 1 ratings
As If By Remote
1999

LADDIO BOLOCKO Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko by LADDIO BOLOCKO album cover Studio Album, 1997
4.91 | 2 ratings

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Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko
Laddio Bolocko Krautrock

Review by theaqua

5 stars ''A super strident and unique aggressive Krautrock''

Laddio Bolocko was a short-lived American Krautrock band founded in 1996 that released 1 EP and 2 albums during its short career, with the infamous Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko being their debut album and what I'm going to talk about, I can say that of all the albums of Krautrock that I've tried so far, this is the most unique due to one factor that can put off many listeners: noise, right on the first track ''Goat Lips'' already attacks, demonstrating very well what the album will be like, the mix is quite loud, emphasizing the noise, and along with that, aggressive Krautrock with passages of Math Rock, Psychedelic, and Jazz and Noise Rock, the noise in Strange Warmings is what makes this album even more dynamic, giving substance for the track, I absolutely love ''Goat Lips'', a fantastic introduction, very dynamic and raw, the musicians are very talented, Blake Fleming is an incredible drummer, and I like how Drew St. Ivany guitar is so versatile and Ben Armstrong bass is great and pretty groovy and heavy.

The album always has something new to offer on each track, constantly loud and constantly innovative, ''Call Me Jesus'' is just as loud as the previous track, with a big focus on drums being probably the most noisy on the album, ''Nurser '' is very, VERY hypnotic and macabre, seriously, riffs with constant 23/8 changes that after such noisy and overwhelming sections comes the middle of the song which is an extensive atmospheric session that is simply scary, after these 3 strident tracks comes the ''The Man Who Never Was'' is less noisy, and more raw and quite jazzy and surprisingly featuring Marcus DeGrazia on saxophone, his playing is very dissonant and strange, which is really cool, and after this track he is quite present, ''Dangler'' and ''Y toros'' are very impressive epics, ''Dangler'' once again showing how much Blake, Marcus and Ben in ''Dangler'' show how much they are capable of, each doing his best, and then comes the last track on the album ''Y toros'', the longest of 30 minutes, a great hypnotic epic, Ivany returns with his riffs that alternate between strange and dynamic and atmospheric, the track as a whole is very impressive, here things get more explosive again, and at all times I paid attention, amazing and a worthy final track.

Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko is fantastic, every moment of the album is rich, and the Noise Rock elements are very well implemented, giving this album a very unique factor both inside and outside Krautrock, the tracks are dynamic, everything is very hypnotic and innovative, it's easily one of the best albums I've heard this year, the only thing that might put many people off listening to this album is precisely how noisy it is, very noisy, however, if you like it or you're okay with it, and If you want something different, I highly recommend it, a fantastic album from start to finish.

10/10

Thanks to gordy for the artist addition.

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