Album Review: LA LOM

LA LOM’s debut & self-titled album Los Angeles League of Musicians is a soundtrack for your imagination.

The trio, established circa 2019, comprises of LA locals Zac Solokolow (guitar), Jake Faulkner (Bass) and Nicholas Baker (drums/percussion) who were clearly immersed in the musical melting pot of California.

The album sends you on a road trip discussing Cuban afro beats with Ennio Morricone in the back seat while on the hunt for tamales & raspados!

You are serenaded with heart-felt chords and progressions as you blissfully take your lover for a slow spin on the dancefloor, then there’s a swift change and you think LA LOM would fit seamlessly as Beck’s backing band, with the up-tempo and percussive “Maravilla”, and especially “‘72 Monte Carlo”.

“Ghosts of Gardena” with its orchestral string arrangement is a perfect example of modern Latin American music, while “Moonlight over Montebello” has an undeniably Hawaiian twang.

Listening to “San Fernando Rose”, you can’t help but think of the poor vaquero who’s about to ride off into the sunset, he looks back at his amante, she sheds a solitary tear. Hey, he’s got “cowboy” stuff to tend to. Will she see her love again? We can only hope…

Sometimes you just don’t need vocals. Beautiful album for fans of cumbia and bolero music.

LA LOM is out now through Verve records and at all good record stores.