MusicOMH.com (9/10)
‘music to listen to on a midnight drive through industrial wastelands. If Sigur Ros were born to soundtrack the desolation of nature, Laymar were born to soundtrack the desolation of the inner city’
The Fly (4/5):
‘Over seven tracks, ‘In Strange Lines And Distances’ staggers from being the most thrilling thing you’ll hear for a long time (‘NU1’), to being daunting and at times terrifying (‘Swords’), like the soundtrack to A Very Bad Thing. But it needs listening to, and it’s one for turning up very loud indeed.’
Audoiscribbler (8/10):
‘the piano-driven nineteen-minute climax ‘Swords’ which metamorphosizes from a gentle passage into the unashamedly most brutal few minutes of the record.’
Rockerilla (Italian Magazine) (9/10): - awaiting translation
Manchestermusic.com (4.5/5 and album of the week):
'That’s how grand it is – bleak, joyous, dark, illuminated – a constant contradiction and a formula that turns the quiet / loud formula on its head. With an ostentatious reverence, the album completes its orchestrated journey with the cathedral filling epic “Swords”, a 19 minute road trip in itself, that quite possibly takes you right into the heart of a dying star. And back again... '
Gigwise (4/5):
‘In Strange Lines and Distances’ is pretty devastating fare, especially if you’re willing to give it a bit of time to reveal its habit-forming secrets.'
High Voltage Magazine (4/5):
'Veering from the beautiful intensity of 'Juvenile Whole Life' to the pre-apocalyptic brooding of 'Swords', this [In Strange Lines and Distances] is a vastly impressive effort.'
Kerrang Magazine (4/5):
Drowned in Sound (7/10):
‘Each track renders a landscape of despair through near-perfectly placed electronic bleep-and-click beats’
AmericanaUK (7/10):
‘They [Laymar] hit their stride on showpiece and closer ‘Swords’ as it slowly ratchets up the doom-laden, dramatic tension before imploding under shards of distortion, then resurrecting itself with echoing, calm guitar lines'
Bearded Magazine:
‘19 minutes of ‘Sword’ will make you shiver’ ‘Put this record on and listen to it in a darkened room. Or, even better, put it on in your room and feel it darken around you.’
Festival Wise (8/10):
‘Swords’ sounds totally unique and absolutely spellbinding. The same can be said for most of the rest of ‘In Strange Lines and Distances’.
Music Not Mayhem:
'Laymar set the listener a mental challenge - they are the sound of the experiment, of marbles being discarded and flying fast down an infinite maze of corridors. They are the snakes in the air, they are the little black dots. The quiet space that rejects you and starts to murmur with the disconcerting tongues of a 1000 strangers, projecting dark casts onto a febrile mind - Laymar infiltrate the imagination.'
Organ Magazine (Album of the Week):
Despite the fact that the Laymar sound is not considered radio friendly a number of tracks from the album have featured on RTE Radio (Cian O Ciobhain), XFM (John Kennedy) and BBC 6 music (Stuart Maconie) plus some of the shorter tracks have appeared on Podcasts throughout the world.
Band Members
Colin Williams
David Paul
Ciaran Cullen
Discography
In Strange Lines and Distances (Album) [2008]
Tour Dates
In The City 2008 Festival - Manchester
5/10/08 Night & Day, Oldham St - Fierce Panda Showcase
Links
Laymar Myspace
Tenor Vossa Records