Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Low. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Low. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Monday, November 4, 2024
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Monday, November 7, 2022
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot
Low released this experimental EP in 1997. Here, they started to push the boundaries of what Low sounded like. It opens with a really strangely recorded version of Will the Night, with all the vocals and instrumentation relegated to the background, almost sounding like it came from a different room, and a kind of drone which follows the melody is given centre stage.
The dead slow trudge through Condescend comes next, a wintry yet warm tune sung by Mimi Parker. Speaking of trudges, the thirteen minute plus Born by the Wires is even slower and grimmer than Condescend. A fragile, high pitched Alan Sparhawk vocal crawls across dissonant guitar rumbles, the track is kind of hard work. The sinister, creeping Be There is quite minimal but works well, while Landlord is slow and foreboding. Parker and Sparhawk's signature harmonies make an appearance on the sweetest, briefest, and final track, Hey Chicago.
Definitely for committed fans rather than casual dabblers.
Friday, November 2, 2018
A Conversation with Alan Sparhawk (Low) – Part Two
Interview for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/02/a-conversation-with-alan-sparhawk-low-part-two/
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Low – Vicar Street – Live Review – 17/10/18
Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/18/low-vicar-street-live-review-17-10-18/
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Low – Double Negative – Album Review
Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/04/low-double-negative-album-review/
Monday, January 1, 2018
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Friday, April 29, 2016
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Top 10 albums of 2013
This list will be more controversial for what I'm leaving out. So no Bowie, National or Queens of the Stone Age:
10 My Bloody Valentine - m b v
Never thought I'd be including Kevin Shields and co in a list like this. This album succeeds by simply doing what MBV are good at. It sounds like it could have come out in 1993 as opposed to 2013, yet it's not dated.
9 Low - The Invisible Way
A remarkably consistent band. This album is more stripped down than of late for them, allowing Sparhawk and Parker's harmonies lots of room to breathe.
8 Bill Callahan - Dream River
Callahan is on fairly opaque form here, and it's an album that I suspect still has to fully reveal itself 3 months on. Still, you can't argue with that voice or his band.
7 Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle - Perils From The Sea
A brave move for Kozelek to leave his voice completely at the mercy of Lavalle's lush, electronic soundbeds. The end result is an undoubted triumph, unlike anything else in his back catalogue.
6 Chequerboard - The Unfolding
A beautiful guitar instrumental album from John Lambert aka Chequerboard.
5 Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
An unexpected return from BoC to produce an addictive soundtrack for dark, uncertain times.
4 Mogwai - Les Revenants
The soundtrack to the TV series of the year, it works beautifully with the programme. But on its own it works really well, pushing Mogwai's music in an understated, keyboard heavy direction.
3 Mark Kozelek & Desertshore
Kozelek returned to a classic guitar, bass, drums combination. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but some of the songs contained are among his strongest in many years.
2 Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood - Black Pudding
Lanegan show his more rootsy side on a collaboration that echoes his early 90s solo material in a really good way.
1 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
Nick Cave and co have had an extraordinary career, yet this album, 10 months on continues to astound, revealing hidden qualities as it goes. Wonderful stuff.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Album Review: Retribution Gospel Choir
The first album from Retribution Gospel Choir, released in 2008, sets the tone for this project - heavy, rocking out guitars, a sort of Alan Sparhawk midlife crisis escape from Low.
Basically if you like the heavier bits of The Great Destroyer, you'll love this. Opening with the heavy rock of They Knew You Well, the band reimagine two of Low's songs from Drums and Guns in this format - Take Your Time and Breaker, both of which succeed it has to be said.
The pounding, bone-shaking riffs of Somebody's Someone and What She Turned Into thrill and startle in equal measure. The bashful, subdued Holes In Our Heads is more typical Sparhawk territory, starting quietly before giving way to more guitar pyrotechnics. Kids betrays the hallmark of producer Mark Kozelek's heavier material with Sun Kil Moon, all heavy, yet hesitant guitar crunch, and is allowed a full four minutes before concluding with Sparhawk singing a gentle 'Amen'.
Frustratingly, many of the other songs last little over two minutes, it would have been nice to hear Sparhawk indulge his inner Crazy Horse. It's at times unsettling and never a comfortable listen, the ideal flipside to Low's Drums and Guns album.
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