Loka first appeared on a Ninja Tune compilation in 2000, and it has taken six years for their first long player to finally appear. The Merseyside pair has spent their time wisely.
Their instrumental jazz sound is frequently cinematic and could easily soundtrack a seventies movie, with the glowing fuzz seeping thorough from the funky chords of Meet Dad to become dying, desolate, swirling embers in tracks like Beginingless.
The only real downside to Fire Shepherds is that the overwhelming sense of anticipation brought on by opening track Safe Self Tester, and its emotive string section, never feels fully realised across the rest of the record.
Fire Shepherds is essentially semi-experimental jazz, but only one track, Freda Mae, devolves into self-congratulatory noodling. The rest is as accessible as this sort of thing gets, and is compellingly beautiful to boot.
Released March 27, 2006.
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