UK · alternative

Lamb

2 upcoming festivals

Lou Rhodes and Andy Barlow's Manchester duo, pairing fragile vocal lines with skittering drum and bass programming since the mid-nineties.

Lamb formed in Manchester in the mid-1990s around singer Lou Rhodes and producer Andy Barlow. Their music sat at the edge of trip hop, setting Rhodes's high, unadorned voice against jittery programmed breakbeats, double bass and string arrangements — a combination that made "Gorecki", from their 1996 debut, their most widely heard song.

Across subsequent albums the pair moved between drum and bass tempos and slower, more orchestral writing, with Barlow's production growing denser as Rhodes's lyrics stayed direct and personal. The duo separated in the mid-2000s, both working on solo material, before reconvening at the end of the decade and returning to recording and touring.

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