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Lichens, "The Psychic Nature of Being"
Robert Lowe might be recognized for his work with 90 Day Men and hisinvolvement with TV on the Radio. As a solo performer Lowe contacts thesublime and unspeakable, evoking masses of digital voices recorded fromwastelands, deserts, and temples.The melodies and soundscapes thatemerge from the meshing of his guitar and processed vocals acknowledgesome eastern influence, but also fall somewhere within the Americanfolk tradition, wandering without being lost. The Psychic Nature of Beingbegs for a cerebral consideration of Lowe's music; the title of thesongs and the mood established within bubble over with philosophicaland mystical musings, each one equally appropriate for quietmeditation, writing, or sleeping. "Kirilian Auras," named after acontroversial photographic technique that claims to capture auras onfilm, begins with the moan of electricity and life, slowly escaping thelungs and distorting in the air, fractured into phrases and loops thatbeing to roll over one another. Soon Lowe adds his gentle guitar, itseems to mimic that vocal patterns crashing into one another, but italso offers a reference and a kind of solace in its easy rolling. Thecombination of his choral, digital sounds and his acoustic picking arehypnotizing, producing the image of rain falling, the soul escaping itsshell, or the long journey between unfamiliar cities, the rhythm ofwalking and observing in accordance with peace. At times the flow ofmusic sounds like the low piping of Japanese flutes and the whistle andbend of impossible instruments break over them, holding the compositionin place and freezing the moment of music in an unshakable lift. Thebrilliantly titled "You Are Excrement If You Can Turn Yourself IntoGold" closes the disc and offers a glimpse of the eastern world Lowesurely must've envisioned in the process of creating this album. Aguitar, played as though it were a gong being struck, tolls underneaththe trill and snap of a slippery melody. Softly the piece fades into anocturnal scene, populated by bells and the easy manner of eveningactivities. Lowe builds the song into an echoed mesh of melody, noise,and simple flucuations until its weaving body harmonizes as a constantin and of itself. Nothing could be removed or added from the song, asit stands it is the perfect picture of a misty landscape and doesnothing short of photograph peace as a movement. It isn't meant to begold, it's object isn't to be beautiful, but to be. Thus Lowe avoidsexcrement and utility and ascends to pure music, reaching for anessence and doing everything possible to represent it as something anyear will find familiar. It might be argued that drones have little elseto do but die away as a tried and true means of recording the ephemeralhappenings missed by so many, but Lowe's use of the constant sound issomething else; when his tones are stretched out, they do more thanjust provide a space for sound, they mix intimately with his moremusical work and create a sound that's entirely unique and far moredeserving of the association with old America and its story-tellingtradition than any other "weird" American outfit. In fact, the term"lichen" refers to symbiosis, relationships of mutual benefit. Toachieve the level of intimacy he has on this record without lyricsrequires a level of sophistication and nuance, and that is exactly whatLowe has done on his debut by mixing and considering two very differentworlds and finding that they aren't so distant.
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