The return of Jody O Lloyd
by Daphne Noel (presto magazine)
10 km of coloured thread, 6000 reprinted Polaroid photographs, 28 square metres of recycled card, 2 rubber stamps, 1 crochet hook an onion and a whole lot of love. Jody O Lloyd’s debut album, Loops of Love, is not only timeless it is time consuming. With approximately 10 minutes and 20 inconspicuous fingerprints devoted to the assemblage of each album, Jody Lloyd and his inventive companion, Devika Bilimoria, compile a neat work of art.
This tantalising work consolidates music and visual art within one novel pouch. It is tactile, audible, and visual. If you’re lucky you can smell the sweet scent of labour, and if you were that way inclined, it could also be consumed.
In the mouth of each CD pouch rests an onion stamped disc and a tight stack of 12 coloured cards detailed with exquisite images and thoughtful text.
Eggs, oranges, loops, spheres, ‘o’s, circles and the like were in question and enjoyment when Jody and Devika met. Both having a keen interest in loops, musically and philosophically, they created an intimate language that then became the basis of the music and album art.
The loop themed images within the album are made with a unique Polaroid process, where Devika constructs her own negatives from found object (i.e. peas, foil, sections of vegetables) and liquids. As she speaks of her camera-less photography she states, “the notable thing about these images is that it is a photograph with a pea not of a pea…they seem to be a distant relative of the Photogram.” With hundreds of images to her name, Devika has been nurturing this ingenious analogue process for five years with numerous group and self-curated exhibitions in Australia, and is here to exhibit her art for the first time in NZ in conjunction with Jody’s music.
In Jody’s eclectic style Loops of Love is the yin to his Silent Invisible’s (Trillion) yang. Both albums are cleverly pieced together with seamless ingenuity. The funk, hip-hop, blues, electronic and soul in Loops of Love are elegantly woven together with Jody’s classic beat know how. It is a stunningly crafted album reminiscent of DJ Shadow, Beck, Buck 65 and RJD2, where your body and/or mind moves gracefully from the couch to the dance floor.
Jody is prolific but seldom heard. For 20 years he has been creating music but it has often fallen upon deaf ears. “Making music and running She’ll Be Right Records was often a thankless task”, he says, so he relocated to Melbourne and found a space with some fresh inspiration and support to create music for himself. Jody states, “the intention of this album was for the audience of one, and now that it is complete I can share it knowing that my motivations were genuine”.
You can purchase a handcrafted album and limited enlarged prints of the beautiful images by Jody and Devika at their Loops of Love exhibition as apart of NZ music month in May.
------------------------------------
Otago Daily Times CD Reviews
Sat, 16 May 2009
Loops of Love
She'll be Right Records.
4 stars (out of 5)
Now based in Melbourne, former Christchurch resident Jody Lloyd continues his prolific output with Loops of Love, which, as indicated by its title, is a collection of beats craftily woven with staccato lyricism, bluesy guitar lines, electronic dabblings and a spoonful of soul and funk.
Lloyd has been doing this sort of thing for two decades now and his ear for a good tune and knack for adding just the right amount of homespun grit remain undiminished.
Inspired, inventive yet unassuming, this is hip-hop the way it should be.
Single download: Move Your Hips
For those who like: Beck, De La Soul, DJ Shadow
- Shane Gilchrist
-----------------------------------
Jody O Lloyd - Loops Of Love
NZ Herald
Thursday June 11, 2009
Rating: * * * *
Verdict: Debut solo album by former Dark Tower lad is his best work yet.
There's something hokey about Jody Lloyd. There always has been, ever since the Kiwi music producer was part of parochial, Fred Dagg-style hip-hop crew Dark Tower. These days, in collaboration with various artists, he releases music as Trillion and now the Melbourne-based musician is going it alone under his own name on debut solo album Loops of Love. And what a loping, laid-back, beat-driven marvel it is - while still retaining hints of that hokey charm (especially the blatant Kiwi accent in the vocals, which unlike Dark Tower is kept to a minimum here).
Me and You has a simmering intensity like DJ Shadow at the height of his powers; Move Your Hips has a Shaft-meets-Superfly pimp roll groove to it; and the deadpan Recipe For A Perfect Nap - with the lyrics "One me and one you. Take an empty afternoon and gently combine the ingredients" - is so cute and cool yet ever so slightly kooky.
It's the subtleties, such as the creepy piano on Empty Hands like someone sneaking along a creaky staircase, and the out of kilter instruments on Eggs From Eltham, that makes Loops of Love a low key yet inspired gem.
In keeping with Lloyd's DIY ethic the album package is also a beautifully makeshift affair, made of cardboard and bound together by strands of cotton. It's an excellent package and the music is the best thing about it.
Scott Kara
--------------------------------------------
JODY O LLOYD: Loops of Love
By Martyn Pepperell for NZ Musician Magazine
With his first full length release under his real name, Jody Lloyd (Dark Tower, Trillion) displays a deft understanding of the instrumental hip hop production techniques pioneered by UK record label Mo’Wax during the nineties. In a contemporary context, the likes of Buck 65 and RJD2 are perhaps more appropriate touchstones, but regardless, ‘Loops of Love’ bears obvious allegiance to the first wave of that form of sample collage beat music. Despite the emphasis placed on instrumentals, this album finds Lloyd once again stretching his vocal cords as a rapper/spoken word artist, and bringing a few feature guests along for the ride. His rap style is defined by his take on the Kiwi accent, and as a result tends to polarise listeners. While I’m not completely sold on the vocal/lyrical quotient of this release, the music and production is impressively executed.
--------------------------------------------
Jody O Lloyd
Loops of Love
Amplifier
It’s hard to know what to expect from an album housed in an adorable homemade cardboard CD wallet and wrapped in coloured thread. Even more so when that wallet reveals its visual art collaboration; 12 printed cards containing beautiful photographic images by artist Devika Bilimoria, which correspond to each track’s illustrated lyrics on the flip.
Over the last 18 years, Jody O Lloyd has been involved in the local music industry in several different capacities – in Christchurch hiphop outfit Dark Tower and recently as rapper Trillion – and given the length of time, I was surprised that Loops of Love is Lloyd’s first solo project. It appears though that it was critically important to Lloyd to create an album for himself, without the interference and compromise that collaboration with other artists necessarily requires.
To write the lyrics, Lloyd ‘shut himself in a dusty room with pen and paper and channelled John Lennon for 22 days, eating cornflakes and Asian takeaways.’
The result is Loops of Love. Musically inspired by an interest in loops, the music with its simple hiphop beats and funk and disco samples easily draw comparisons with DJ Shadow and RJD2. But there is something slightly kitsch about his combination of samples. And when combined with Lloyd’s relaxed and kiwi-accented vocals, the sound is an interesting hybrid which reveals its influences while remaining clearly New Zealand. For example ‘Recipe for a Perfect Nap,’ with its spooning instructions has a sweet sincerity that makes it my fave.
Loops of Love is a beautifully presented, poignant and very enjoyable listen, best appreciated by people who live in Grey Lynn.
Jess Hartley
by Daphne Noel (presto magazine)
10 km of coloured thread, 6000 reprinted Polaroid photographs, 28 square metres of recycled card, 2 rubber stamps, 1 crochet hook an onion and a whole lot of love. Jody O Lloyd’s debut album, Loops of Love, is not only timeless it is time consuming. With approximately 10 minutes and 20 inconspicuous fingerprints devoted to the assemblage of each album, Jody Lloyd and his inventive companion, Devika Bilimoria, compile a neat work of art.
This tantalising work consolidates music and visual art within one novel pouch. It is tactile, audible, and visual. If you’re lucky you can smell the sweet scent of labour, and if you were that way inclined, it could also be consumed.
In the mouth of each CD pouch rests an onion stamped disc and a tight stack of 12 coloured cards detailed with exquisite images and thoughtful text.
Eggs, oranges, loops, spheres, ‘o’s, circles and the like were in question and enjoyment when Jody and Devika met. Both having a keen interest in loops, musically and philosophically, they created an intimate language that then became the basis of the music and album art.
The loop themed images within the album are made with a unique Polaroid process, where Devika constructs her own negatives from found object (i.e. peas, foil, sections of vegetables) and liquids. As she speaks of her camera-less photography she states, “the notable thing about these images is that it is a photograph with a pea not of a pea…they seem to be a distant relative of the Photogram.” With hundreds of images to her name, Devika has been nurturing this ingenious analogue process for five years with numerous group and self-curated exhibitions in Australia, and is here to exhibit her art for the first time in NZ in conjunction with Jody’s music.
In Jody’s eclectic style Loops of Love is the yin to his Silent Invisible’s (Trillion) yang. Both albums are cleverly pieced together with seamless ingenuity. The funk, hip-hop, blues, electronic and soul in Loops of Love are elegantly woven together with Jody’s classic beat know how. It is a stunningly crafted album reminiscent of DJ Shadow, Beck, Buck 65 and RJD2, where your body and/or mind moves gracefully from the couch to the dance floor.
Jody is prolific but seldom heard. For 20 years he has been creating music but it has often fallen upon deaf ears. “Making music and running She’ll Be Right Records was often a thankless task”, he says, so he relocated to Melbourne and found a space with some fresh inspiration and support to create music for himself. Jody states, “the intention of this album was for the audience of one, and now that it is complete I can share it knowing that my motivations were genuine”.
You can purchase a handcrafted album and limited enlarged prints of the beautiful images by Jody and Devika at their Loops of Love exhibition as apart of NZ music month in May.
------------------------------------
Otago Daily Times CD Reviews
Sat, 16 May 2009
Loops of Love
She'll be Right Records.
4 stars (out of 5)
Now based in Melbourne, former Christchurch resident Jody Lloyd continues his prolific output with Loops of Love, which, as indicated by its title, is a collection of beats craftily woven with staccato lyricism, bluesy guitar lines, electronic dabblings and a spoonful of soul and funk.
Lloyd has been doing this sort of thing for two decades now and his ear for a good tune and knack for adding just the right amount of homespun grit remain undiminished.
Inspired, inventive yet unassuming, this is hip-hop the way it should be.
Single download: Move Your Hips
For those who like: Beck, De La Soul, DJ Shadow
- Shane Gilchrist
-----------------------------------
Jody O Lloyd - Loops Of Love
NZ Herald
Thursday June 11, 2009
Rating: * * * *
Verdict: Debut solo album by former Dark Tower lad is his best work yet.
There's something hokey about Jody Lloyd. There always has been, ever since the Kiwi music producer was part of parochial, Fred Dagg-style hip-hop crew Dark Tower. These days, in collaboration with various artists, he releases music as Trillion and now the Melbourne-based musician is going it alone under his own name on debut solo album Loops of Love. And what a loping, laid-back, beat-driven marvel it is - while still retaining hints of that hokey charm (especially the blatant Kiwi accent in the vocals, which unlike Dark Tower is kept to a minimum here).
Me and You has a simmering intensity like DJ Shadow at the height of his powers; Move Your Hips has a Shaft-meets-Superfly pimp roll groove to it; and the deadpan Recipe For A Perfect Nap - with the lyrics "One me and one you. Take an empty afternoon and gently combine the ingredients" - is so cute and cool yet ever so slightly kooky.
It's the subtleties, such as the creepy piano on Empty Hands like someone sneaking along a creaky staircase, and the out of kilter instruments on Eggs From Eltham, that makes Loops of Love a low key yet inspired gem.
In keeping with Lloyd's DIY ethic the album package is also a beautifully makeshift affair, made of cardboard and bound together by strands of cotton. It's an excellent package and the music is the best thing about it.
Scott Kara
--------------------------------------------
JODY O LLOYD: Loops of Love
By Martyn Pepperell for NZ Musician Magazine
With his first full length release under his real name, Jody Lloyd (Dark Tower, Trillion) displays a deft understanding of the instrumental hip hop production techniques pioneered by UK record label Mo’Wax during the nineties. In a contemporary context, the likes of Buck 65 and RJD2 are perhaps more appropriate touchstones, but regardless, ‘Loops of Love’ bears obvious allegiance to the first wave of that form of sample collage beat music. Despite the emphasis placed on instrumentals, this album finds Lloyd once again stretching his vocal cords as a rapper/spoken word artist, and bringing a few feature guests along for the ride. His rap style is defined by his take on the Kiwi accent, and as a result tends to polarise listeners. While I’m not completely sold on the vocal/lyrical quotient of this release, the music and production is impressively executed.
--------------------------------------------
Jody O Lloyd
Loops of Love
Amplifier
It’s hard to know what to expect from an album housed in an adorable homemade cardboard CD wallet and wrapped in coloured thread. Even more so when that wallet reveals its visual art collaboration; 12 printed cards containing beautiful photographic images by artist Devika Bilimoria, which correspond to each track’s illustrated lyrics on the flip.
Over the last 18 years, Jody O Lloyd has been involved in the local music industry in several different capacities – in Christchurch hiphop outfit Dark Tower and recently as rapper Trillion – and given the length of time, I was surprised that Loops of Love is Lloyd’s first solo project. It appears though that it was critically important to Lloyd to create an album for himself, without the interference and compromise that collaboration with other artists necessarily requires.
To write the lyrics, Lloyd ‘shut himself in a dusty room with pen and paper and channelled John Lennon for 22 days, eating cornflakes and Asian takeaways.’
The result is Loops of Love. Musically inspired by an interest in loops, the music with its simple hiphop beats and funk and disco samples easily draw comparisons with DJ Shadow and RJD2. But there is something slightly kitsch about his combination of samples. And when combined with Lloyd’s relaxed and kiwi-accented vocals, the sound is an interesting hybrid which reveals its influences while remaining clearly New Zealand. For example ‘Recipe for a Perfect Nap,’ with its spooning instructions has a sweet sincerity that makes it my fave.
Loops of Love is a beautifully presented, poignant and very enjoyable listen, best appreciated by people who live in Grey Lynn.
Jess Hartley
cd - SILENTinvisible