When you see the phrase “side project”, think not “less essential” but more like someone in a group who had their own separate artistic vision they needed to express. Looper’s been described as a side project of Belle & Sebastian since their inception, though Stuart David left the group 15 years ago. Looper’s been relatively dormant, at least album-wise, since just a couple years after that. Their fourth album Offgrid:Offline came at the same time as a brilliant retrospective boxed set, one that took the unconventional approach of grouping the songs by invented genre names.Offgrid:Online includes songs in all of those genres, while feeling different than the duo’s past work. The album title represents the life path Stuart & Karn David took, moving to the countryside.
Oh, Skinny Legs is taken from the new Looper album Offgrid:Offline and also features on the career spanning 5 CD box set ‘These Things’. These Things limited edition box set of 200
New video made by Looper’s Karn David from photographs sent in for the Lomography x Looper competition.
Offgrid:Offline has a more organic feeling representing that choice, and the songs dwell—in gorgeous, poetic ways—on the properties of cities versus the country and on the life choices we all make. There’s a minimalist, natural side to their style of synth-pop in 2015 that is incomparable and, perhaps not surprisingly, going more unnoticed than it should. But that’s part of the fabric of the album: slipping into the darkness and feeling satisfied with that choice.
‘Farfisa Song’ from the new Looper album ‘Offgrid:Offline’ and is included in the 5 CD box set ‘These Things’.
Pre-Order limited edition: https://www.musicglue.com/looper/
‘These Things’ Includes 58 tracks plus a 20 page booklet with sleeves notes by The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, plus a digital copy of the new album – Offgrid:Offline.
Looper emerged from Belle & Sebastian in 1997, when Stuart David (co-founder and bass player of B&S) and his wife Karn (an artist who directed the early B&S videos) collaborated for a show at Glasgow School of Art.
A limited edition of 200 signed box sets is available from the official Looper store with the following extras:
Live cassette of the 1999 Troubadour show in America, Lyric book ‘Looper, Mute Songs’, Looper badge & download of new album – Offgrid:Offline.
The Fat Angel Sings 