Who's Most Lost

Perhaps more than any other New Zealand record label, Rattle has a reputation for releasing albums that eschew easy categorisation, albums that are frequently genre-crossing if not genre defying. The subverted 'pop sensibility' of Arcades sits perfectly with Rattle's penchant for music that follows its own compass. The pieces on 'Who's Most Lost?' have their own distinct magnetisms, and the musical map being charted by the group has a very welcome home at Rattle.

One might be tempted to use terms like 'post-pop', 'art-pop', 'avant-pop', 'alt-pop', 'ambient-pop', 'experimental' or 'alternative', and to cite the influence of artists such as Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian, and (particularly) late period Talk Talk (Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock), but Arcades have created their own moving and quietly unsettling sonic world. Trained as composers and having played in bands, David and Dugal are inquisitive, sonically omnivorous musical artists, ever-fond of crossing borders between music and sound art.

The compositions for 'Who's Most Lost?' were primarily inspired by the duo's ongoing infatuation with pop music. While the pieces were composed relatively quickly, the production process evolved slowly, emerging largely out of countless emails, ftp exchanges, and multiple performances recorded in numerous physical locations. While there was no overarching concept at work behind the album, a recurring theme of dislocation emerged: psychological, cultural, social, spiritual, lost and sometimes found, "Lost and Safe" as The Books have it, and particularly lost in the blinkered comforts of 21st Century life, with its multitude of dark forces just beyond the living room door.