Brad Laner - Ligaments 01 – 05 (2019)

“Ligaments” is a new long-form experimental/electronic composition by Brad Laner presented as five digital albums and a limited edition of 100 sets of five signed and numbered cassettes. Although primarily known as a guitarist and leader of seminal American shoegazers Medicine, Laner also has a life-long hands-on history with many forms of experimental music. After an early childhood filled with private tape recorder and feedback experiments, in 1981 Laner formed both his free-improv noise collage ensemble Debt of Nature and synth-punk band Earth Dies Burning, releasing many now nearly impossible to find cassettes on the Party Sound Tapes label he ran with Mike Fey including music from legendary synth punk band Nervous Gender, with whom he occasionally played live. In the early 80s Laner also witnessed and was scarred for life by seeing amongst many others,Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Non,The Residents, Einsturzende Neubauten and brought the notorious Whitehouse to Los Angeles for their first performances there.

After a stint playing drums in Savage Republic, Laner formed Medicine in 1990, incorporating many of the experimental principals he’d internalized during his teen years. Simultaneously he began to produce purely electronic music under the name Electric Company, releasing 10 albums on labels such as Island, Tigerbeat6, Planet Mu, Mille Plateaux and others.

Many diverse and experimental collaborations with the likes of Brian Eno (on his Another Day on Earth album), Christopher Willits, Caribou, M83, Wild Nothing and John Wiese’s Sissy Spacek have punctuated his continuing work with Medicine and solo LPs of song-based music. More recently Laner has taken the inevitable dive into the ever-expanding universe of modular synthesis, taking many months to record dozens of hours of live improvisations and editing them together under the influence of his early electronic music heroes. “Ligaments” is the result and is intended to be an ongoing series.