LPC, whose true identity has remained a mystery ever since Propaganda, becomes more self-referential than he has on his work before. The same moment we might forget all about his vocal style, as his prose is illuminated, sounding like the lyrics of a dead country singer whose mind was replaced by a random word generator. In a moment his vocal aesthetic is reminiscent of Diamanda Galás, whose career of intense avant-garde, blues, and shrieking is not all that unlike Longmont’s. His rambling and comedic soundscapes sound more like Merzbow than ever, until they don’t. The first thing you may notice upon listening to LPC’s 14, is that his use of vocal effects and manipulation runs far more rampant than we’ve heard before. Whether he wants his listeners laughing, crying or cringing at any given moment, Potion Castle has clung to his discovery: how to interact with the world in a way no one else ever has. This is because through the past 3 decades his ideology, medium and ultimately his mission have remained the same. His discography, 17 albums deep, proves not only to be a one-of-a-kind attempt in its field, but proves LPC to be canon worthy in the history of anonymous artists.Īlmost 30 years after his first release, Subliminal Propaganda, Longmont Potion Castle’s work still enables his little group of devout listeners to feel the same euphoria, intrigue and bewilderment that it did in 1988. Somewhere deep within the assemblage of masked creators, lies Longmont Potion Castle, a noise and thrash metal recording artist whose status has never touched any of the aforementioned. So unconcerned with the limelight, it seems as though they hardly care whether or not anyone is paying attention to what they do. Why is this? Is it because these people have realized their need to contribute art untainted by image, and let their work speak for themselves? Or is it the anonymity that creates the intrigue? Maybe at times what fascinates us about this work is the idea of the masked genius behind it. Too perfect.įrom Salinger and Pynchon to Kubrick to Banksy and the Master of Vyšší Brod to Daft Punk and the Weeknd, it could be said that some of the most important creative people in their fields have been anonymous, or at least reclusive. Also, he calls Andy Breckman who tells him to go screw himself. Also he says he’s spoken to Alex between 600 and 700 times. He gets asked if he’d ever want to appear on Jeopardy and he calls Alex Trebek up and asks about casting information. There’s a Q&A with people from a record store where he demonstrates his process on the fly. One of the album’s bonus tracks is the most revealing thing to appear on an LPC recording so far. And when he’s doing his UPS guy shtick, claiming he’s from, and asks someone for a “long number that begins with a four”…. Also, the way LPC keeps pronouncing “card” and “charge” is mindblowing. And trains keep going by and birds keep chirping. Besides that, someone keeps calling up all these bookstores and hardware stores and asking for hedge clippings and books about egg nog and wart hogs. It’s like a long lost Western cousin of Dugan Nash’s hit “Check, Double Check, Triple Double Check” and it’s the new hit sweeping the nation. The biggest addition to the LPC canon from this new album is definitely the part at the end of “LPC 15 Medley” when he calls up a record store and asks for some country song that goes “Where’d ya gitcha donkey donkey?” with tons of wet echo effects on his voice.
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