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Just when you think you can predict Low, they toss a curve ball in your direction which ends up coming back and hitting you smack on the noggin' and knocks you out. Without a doubt, Low has recorded their creepiest, most diverse, most intense, and least hit-song-friendly record to date. Once again, I am completely floored.
 
Lyrically and musically, the band keeps growing (exponentially so) in their abilities and daringness, merging fantastic vocal harmonies with shudderingly eerie music, unpredictable lyrics and deceptively simple and un-abused melodies. There's a certain intimacy to Low's music, as anybody who has seen them live can attest to, and on early recordings, even Low's albums sounded like the band could easily be in the same room as the listener. Over the last few albums, however, the band has almost distanced the live feel with the recorded sound, as production has included a number of elements which simply cannot be repeated live with their simple three-piece lineup.
For Trust, the group tried a new approach. The trio captured the recordings in Duluth before bringing to producer Tschad Blake (Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, Sheryl Crow) for the mix. While much of the music was live, the group actually experimented with a larger variety of both effects and instruments. Backup singers, bells, organ, accordion and banjo aren't things most Low fans are used to hearing (but then again, neither was the optigan back on Secret Name). The first most noticable departure is the album's overall aggression, heard right from the get-go.
Forceful percussive sounds are the driving forces on the song's opener, "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace," a vocally-harmonic treat that gives me chilling goose-bumps, along with "Candy Girl," which I swear has toilet flushes, and "I am the Lamb," (a track with guest vocals by Gerry Buckley of America) which opens quietly with clapping and makes a song-length crescendo to the point of stomping and hitting wooden blocks by the song's end. Anybody who has seen them over the past year will probably recognize the jaw-droppingly beautiful songs like "Little Argument with Myself" and "In the Drugs," along with songs like "John Prine" which have been part of their live set since before last year's album was even released. The group even tries rocking out on songs like the distortion-heavy "Canada," the loud and in-your-face blare of the morbid "Snowstorm," and the George Harrison-meets-Phil Spector "La La La Song." (I swear, somebody's been listening to All Things Must Pass!) Mimi has very up close and personal moments with the songs "Tonight," "Point of Disgust" and the album drifts off into bliss with the delay-heavy "Shots and Ladders."
Trust may not get the band any airplay on commerical radio, a song in a TV ad, or the closing credits of a movie, but I can safely say it will make many people's top lists by the end of the year.
 
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Originally released on vinyl last year, Anomalous has recently issued an expanded CD version of this magnificent piano-derived piece. The first track, "Period," opens with some plaintive piano notes over the expected low-frequency drone. What is surprising in this piece is the piano—it's up-front rather than altered and hidden like the sounds used in his other pieces. The sound is full and lush, and as each sparse, melodically abstract phrase is played on the piano. Some of the notes are significantly extended, slowly decaying and interacting with the music as some stunning textures emerge.Anomalous
The piece is dark and contemplative, and the sound is much warmer than Coleclough's typical metal-derived drones. The second piece, "Periodic," is a reworking by Colin Potter that leaves out the piano strikes but keeps their decaying ambience. It is a dark, absolutely gorgeous piece that's much more ominous and complex-sounding than the previous track, full of spooky reverbed-out sounds and the rumbling of machinery in the distance over the slowly shifting low-end drones. This disc is truly a captivating listen. A limited edition of 300 copies of this album were released with a second disc containing another 18 minutes constructed from the same source material. The first track, "Periodicity," features prepared piano surrounded by shimmering metallic and low-end tones. It's an interesting piece, but at times, the tonal palette of the scraped and chiming prepared piano sounds limited and repetitive. The second track, "Summand" adds the resonant piano sounds to the sonic foundation from Coleclough's album with Andrew Chalk, 'Sumac.' The two drones slowly shift and interact; the overall effect is hypnotic but the development is really subtle; there's not a lot going on. Later on, digitally-processed high frequency tones are introduced, and the piece ends with loud metallic resonance. The second disc has some great sounds, but is a little less compelling than the first and is probably only essential for completists. 'Period' on its own is an incredible album that establishes Jonathan Coleclough as one of today's premier drone artists.
 
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Tyondai Braxton has an intimate relationship with his guitar pedals. Every sound Braxton makes on this CD - primarily using guitar and voice - is processed through various combinations of a bevy of effects. The nine tracks on this disc are surprisingly diverse, and I imagine there's a good deal of improvisation going on.
 
The first three tracks use only voice and guitar pedals, but you wouldn't know it - "(A Sentence Worth a Thousand Words) Great Mass" is a dense atmospheric soundscape and "Light Pitch Black, I'm Gonna Start Shining Bright!!!" is beat-heavy minimal electronica (probably the most impressive use of beat-boxing in a long time). A disc full of these voice experiments would still be interesting, but things quickly take a turn as the guitar becomes a focal instrument: there's the anthemic post-rock of "Raise Yr Arms & Cross Them", featuring a violist and cellist, and then there's the excellent "The Violent Light Through Falling Shards," where Braxton's guitar stirs up echoes of Charles Bullen over beat-boxed industrial beats and siren-like noise.
In fact, the entire disc is reminiscent of This Heat, not so much in sound (though at times the comparison can be made), but in application; Braxton's hands-on computerless approach to making layered music reflects This Heat's experiments using traditional instruments combined with the live manipulation of tape loops. The final two tracks on the album feature Braxton's singing, a voice that at times almost sounds like (dare I say it) Peter Gabriel. Of these two tracks, "Struck Everywhere" is particularly engaging: a 10-minute, free-flowing melodic piece bedded on a ride cymbal loop. This disc pretty accurately replicates Braxton's live show, where he sits on the floor with a guitar and mic in the middle of a sea of wires, constantly playing, singing, and fiddling with his pedals. He's definitely got it down to an art, as I'm pretty sure all his sounds are created on the spot, with no samples. I wouldn't be surprised if most or all of the intensely-layered tracks on this disc were done in one take without overdubs.
It's really an impressive disc.
 
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Often unfairly lumped in with early 80's industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle and 23 Skidoo, This Heat always forged a path of their own. They probably had more in common with British "new music" pioneers such as AMM and Spontaneous Music Ensemble, but this too seems to sell them short. Their revolutionary sound has most certainly influenced and made possible territories later explored by No Neck Blues Band, Avey Tare Panda Bear, Sonic Youth and Boredoms. This Heat augmented their scratchy, dark punk improvisations with tape loops, ethnic percussion and unique vocal harmonies. Their politics were always at the foreground of their lyrical content, but they avoided sounding preachy or propagandistic. This Heat were pretty obscure even in their own time, and still remain mostly unknown.
'Deceit' is probably their best document, and it contains some of their most masterful work. The album opens with the improbable pop of "Sleep," a song that forms out of nowhere and becomes a beautiful, hypnotic lullaby. All of This Heat's tracks do not operate like most traditionally composed songs; they seem at first to be incoherent and disorganized. This looseness forces the listener to "un-focus" their ears and begin to catch the haphazard logic of the arrangements. "Sleep" sneaks up with its sophisticated counter-melodies and looping percussion. It's hard to believe that these songs have the power or focus to take hold of the listener's mind, but upon careful listening, their ingenuity becomes clear. There are a myriad other great songs on this album, and I have found the best way to absorb 'Deceit' is to listen repeatedly on headphones. What else can one say? I think it's one of the best albums ever recorded.
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Tarwater's third full-length release finds them very much in the same headspace, exploring the same musical themes and capturing some truly beautiful melodies. This time, the concentration seems to be on composing and creating music that would work for films, theatre, and other performing arts.
The arrangements on this release are shorter, building and ending sometimes before you even know what hit you. The mixture of electronic and traditional instrumentation is even more complete, as the two feed off of each other and work together to achieve the desired effect. There is more of a pop song structure on 'Dwellers,' as well, as each song seems to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Also present seems to be a more concerted effort on the part of Ronald Lippok to have his vocals follow the melody slightly, even in their dry delivery. It's an incredibly personal record, with several songs having an emphasis on memories of the past ("Metal Flakes," "1985" particularly). 'Dwellers' also features some rather impressive guests, including Stefan Schneider of To Rococo Rot (of which Lippok is also a member) and Norwegian performance artist Tone Avenstroup. By the time you hear the graceful, frenetic double-shot power of "Be Late" and "Tesla" in the middle of the record, you'll be so enveloped by the melodies and beats, they may never leave your head. I found myself often desiring more out of the vocals, particularly with the short track lengths, but that instrumental tendency has always been one of the many charms of Tarwater, so why change now? Plus, the sparse guest vocals here and there add enough flavor. A completely enthralling listen.
 
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