For those of you a bit too young to remember or care, Lynx dropped a crazy good album back in 2000, but soon disbanded due to the pressures of trying to make a living off of music.
It’s quite a familiar tale for many of us, regardless of the status of whatever project your associated with. Sometimes, the work is not only thankless, but represents a direct draw on your every day resources, and there’s no overstating how that can affect your personal life and various relationships.
As bittersweet as it all sounds, it’s also what makes surprise returns like these so outstanding, especially when they’re done by boutique wunderkind Computer Students are handling the return. The engineering collective has already reproduced some of math rock’s most memorable moments with deluxe packaging and hi-fi glowups with Cheval de Frise, Oxes, and Big’n.
Oh, and did we mention that Lynx features Dave Konopka from Battles?
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Of course, it’s no surprise that the remaster is immaculate from Bill Skibbe of Third Man Mastering in conjunction with the stellar Computer Students. We’ve got a separate article on those guys and their own projects coming up soon as well. “Mrs. Lynx” still groans and floats like the agitated apparition of Syd Barrett, with Konopka’s familiar, piercing guitar slices taking us right back to the early 2000’s.
But while you’re listening, check out this excerpt of the press release below. We’ve seen more than a few press releases in our time, and some of them have been pretty outstanding, but the thing is, this body text is actually full of genuinely fascinating math rock nuggets:
“…The story of Lynx is the result of a persistent process of trial and error that began in the basement of a three-decker house on Calumet Street in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston and lasted for many years to follow. Mike, Dave and Paul became fast friends in 1994 while attending the Massachusetts College of Art. Paul and Dale had befriended each other while playing shows with each of their former bands — Dagobah from Cape Cod and Phyllisfrom Maine, respectively. Sometime around 1996, Mike and Dave had strung together a series of guitar parts in the interest of writing a few songs. Paul and Mike — who briefly had a project as a duo called Glans — lived on the first floor of the three-decker, directly above the basement. Paul would often overhear Mike and Daveʼs relentless practices seeping through the floorboards, eventually driving him to the point of joining them out of necessity rather than listening to their tinny, aimless guitar work from the living room couch. Contributing an overall sense of direction and cohesion, Paul incorporated his much-needed low-end bass offerings to accompany Mike and Daveʼs intertwined guitar parts. Still missing a crucial element, Mike timidly approached Dale and asked if he would be interested in playing drums on some of the music theyʼd been working on. Dale reluctantly agreed under the general caveat that “it doesnʼt suck.” He sat in on a few rehearsals — and, as it turns out, it didnʼt. It wasnʼt until Dale joined the other three in the basement — providing a sense of mass and context to the amalgamation of parts Mike, Dave, and Paul had sketched out — that the four guys acknowledged that there might be a connection there, and something real might actually be happening. It was Lynx.”
Honestly, that’s just half of it, but that’s Computer Students for you. They know how to shape their reissues into offerings you’d be crazy to refuse with their next-level packaging and attention to detail, and now, it appears they’ve got a writer in their midst to match the pace as well. Or maybe they were just really excited that day. It happens. Anyway.
Low key, the most exciting part of all of this that it isn’t JUST a reissue – there are three new songs look forward to. Apparently, they played in a room together and finished them up too, not just worked on the stems remotely or imported to a studio. And allegedly, it didn’t suck – we’re inclined to passionately agree.
Welcome back, Lynx.
Check out the other goodies from Computer Science here, and pre-order the Lynx record here. In fact if you check out the pre-order, you can read the rest of the nifty press release as well. If you wanna buy us a coffee, go ahead and do that here, but no pressure. We’ve got another surprise for you tomorrow, so stick around and enjoy – thanks for reading!