Low: Classic or classic?

close to dead man but instead of letting the notes ring, they crumble

Has the album been announced? They seem to have disappeared from the Sub Pop website. Looking forward to the Leeds show next week. I have a spare ticket if anyone's after one.

only via this listing AFAICT

https://www.cargo-records.de/en/item/126785/katalog_art.123.html

hope this is as great as The Great Destroyer/Trust/Secret Name/Things We Lost In The Fire because nothing they have done since those has been as compelling imo

I'm a little sad it doesn't seem like we're ever getting a Mimi solo album as I seem to imagine Alan teased quite a long time ago. (Though for anyone who hasn't heard it, his Solo Guitar is a neat bit of soundscaping.)

first 15 mins of the new album:

https://open.spotify.com/album/6nfpfcAiNLaxyFxwcj0lkm

holy shit @ glitch ghost Mimi!

oh good this sounds like autechre

I really hate to make this comparison ever but this is sounding very Kid A and I'm into it

it's amazing that The Invisible Way was only two albums ago lol

aoty probably

:D

whoa

Very excited for this. I thought that Ones and Sixes was a great look for them (especially the colder parts like the first two tracks and "DJ") and am pleased that they seem to have travelled some distance further down that road.

"Quorum" really does sound like Autechre.

Going #fullBrad here but aoty. This is amazing.

I've listened to these 4-5 times and I'm just mad we have to wait three months for the rest

For real.

Didn't see this coming at all. Awesome music.

There's video too, suitably glitchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvEozu4Obfs

Sub Pop is offering a pretty good deal for a bundle of their last 5 LPs.

holy shit these new songs are amazing. i'm so gutted that the local show for me (leeds, UK) is sold out... though i did see them in LA last year, and briefly met alan. he was sweet.

wowowowowowow

excellent video too

when did they turn into Andy Stott?

each of the three are so good in different ways. "dancing in blood" in particular raises goosebumps at times. if they hadn't done anything since trust/great destroyer times, then released this, it would sound like a portishead third kind of return. really refreshing to hear their voices and some of the same guitar tones in a new context

Wow. I'm surprised and amazed. These are utterly unexpected, but progress into something that is unmistakably them and really beautiful. Dancing In Blood gave me goosebumps too, then the latter stages of Fly hit and... just wow.

This is fucking fantastic. Exactly what I've been hoping for from them since 'Drums & Guns'. They're wonderful even when they're just doing what comes naturally, and sometimes amazing with it (i.e. 'Secret Name'). But they're always so exciting when they take the sweet simplicity of their elemental sound and just absolutely fuck with it (i.e. 'Bombscare' EP, 'Drums & Guns').

I've been listening intently for 22 years, and based on these three songs, this has the potential to be their best work yet, at least for ears like mine.

Karl Malone, if you're digging this--the way you're referencing Trust/Great Destroyer as their last great work--did you hear 'Drums & Guns'? If not, you're in for a huge thrill.

If somehow there are folks that don't know the 'Bombscare' EP, it's fantastic and maybe the most direct precursor to the sound of these new tracks, from 18 (!?! I'm old) years ago, and what firmly cemented my love of Low:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRoIbBbJx4U

the bombscare EP is really good! thanks for posting that. it does have a very different sound from their other work around the turn of the century, but i dunno, these new tracks still sound like a different place altogether to me.

i listened to drums & guns exactly in full exactly once, but the last two tracks are the ones i always go back to.

hasitleaked.com says it has - two and a half months early!?

that's a bummer

wtf? I remember Invisible Way leaked before it even had a cover or title.

maybe a daft question how do records even leak anyway. is it always an advance press copy that some naughty journo has uploaded to soulseek?

Happens a bunch of different ways, lately I'm guessing the most common is people getting + redeeming download codes early and sharing

anyway I fully intend to buy this when I see them in September so I feel comfortable saying the record is bold and brilliant in all the ways the already-released tracks suggest

I hope Prins Thomas or Koze or somebody gets their hands on "Disarray"

yeah well looking forward to manchester cathedral show.

really love how "tempest" sounds like my speakers are being fed through a spiralizer

this is absolutely some portishead third shit

That's an excellent comparison I should definitely have thought of

karl brought it up upthread, h/t karl

*gets to "the son, the sun"* these songs are all black holes vibrating at different frequencies

Whoa portishead third??? Curious

it'd be a shame if "rome (always in the dark)" never gets used in a movie trailer

anyway this is gorgeous and weirdly feels like an intuitive endpoint, the way the rhythm of "always trying to work it out" pulls everything inward is just mesmerizing

This thing is so cohesive and flows so expertly that I got too annoyed with the leak's track gaps and had to mix it down to a single 49-minute file before I could let myself relisten

The way the clouds part just long enough for "Dancing And Fire" to peek through relatively unobstructed is *kisses fingers*

i am so excited to hear the rest! glad to hear that the other songs are just as engaging

trying to decide whether this is samey and overproduced or genius

low is at their best writing pop songs imo

Not even trying to defend them when I say that complaining that a Low album is "samey" is wild to me, nearly every Low album is them "trying on" a couple sonic ideas and flexing them to various extremes for 40-60 minutes

haha yeah fair shout actually simon, my gripe is completely moot. i think it's maybe why, even though i love them to bits, i almost never make it through a full play of their LPs. the second halves are often a drag.