Low: Classic or classic?

i think it even leveled-up after the 200th listen

I've finally got hold of Double Negative, yes this is a good lp. I would like it even more if they could keep the style of the first four tracks going through the rest of it, but understand that it might try people's patience a bit.

This is the first Low album I've purchased in years, and it really holds up. The blown-out / distortion effects don't wear thin, as it's pared back nicely during some understated parts. It's well-nuanced, compared to something like Embryonic by The Flaming Lips

It sounds as if they're using really heavy compression. "Always Trying to Work it Out" is fascinating - it has the same kind of aggressive compression as a lot of dance music. Whenever the kick drum comes in the entire rest of the mix gets out of the way, but they've made the kick drum quiet so that it sounds as if distant artillery is going off. Or some infernal factory. The album sounds like a more experimental, gloomier Slowdive.

I've generally been sceptical of Low - no-one can be that anguished for that long, they came across as fakers - but Double Negative is subtler. The sound is much more in-your-face but the lyrics and general atmosphere are subtler.

no-one can be that anguished for that long

actually,

I've generally been sceptical of Low - no-one can be that anguished for that long, they came across as fakers

This is a really weird opinion

Always Trying To Work It Out is my favorite track on here, and that sidechain kick is definitely a big part of that. Don't know that I've really heard that before on a nominally non-electronic recording.

They used that effect on the last LP as well, notably on the opener "Gentle"

I've generally been sceptical of Low - no-one can be that anguished for that long, they came across as fakers

This is a really weird opinion

re the sidechain kicks:

I wouldn't deny that the sound is quite different here (though again it was suggested by some of the tracks on Ones and Sixes), but I feel that the way the band use keyboards and static and processed sounds here (a lot of the arrangements seem to be built on distorted samples of their own vocals) is strongly consistent with their prior general songwriting/arranging approach: especially the way that some of the tracks seem to be almost a grim caricature of sidechain compression with the melodies being obliterated by a regular but slow overwhelming kick like they're constantly disappearing into and re-emerging from a black hole. It's very much a digital counterpart to their original trick of focusing the listener's attention on stark, very slow, endlessly repeated guitar chords.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 22:49 (three months ago) Permalink

Perhaps worth emphasising that the kick itself does not sound "loud" - almost like they wanted to concoct a heavily sidechained arrangement but then remove the most of the sound that the sidechaining is designed to emphasise, so it's as if the arrangements are being overwhelemed by silence or numbness, like you're going straight from sensation to a kind of post-explosion deafness, but skipping the sound of the explosion that put you there.

I can't think of a more allusive sonic trick in music this year.

Purity Ring did that a lot on Shrines, having extreme sidechain effects, but muting out the kick half the time so it sounds like everything is fading in and out.

I'd characterize the music of Low as downtempo, reflective, somber at times, but not "anguished"

Yeah, they exert a level of control I tend not to associate with anguish. Angst, sure.

The missing link here is the weird kick Sparhawk used on the first Retribution Gospel Choir album, not the same but it was definitely some weird compression (I've heard of side chain but I don't know enough to say if it's the same thing)

Are the drums on "No Comprende" from the last albums programmed or massively compressed or both?

I used to use that trick a lot, you sidechain the kick to the other track and send it 'pre-fader'.

V good piece

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/12/19/artist-reflections-alan-sparhawk-of-low-on-taking-chances-in-2018/

all the bandcamp daily pieces ive read have been neat - theyre more in touch than a lot of music mags

X-post
Really? I find that quite vague and quite blah. He doesn't really say anything specific about any song. And even when he tells the story about his skiing accident the influence on the album does not become clear. I was waiting that he'd write that Fly was inspired by the accident and the long period of immobility. Maybe the reader is supposed to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Luckily his profession is to make music and not to write.

Thank you, anonymous US Post Office employee: Reflections on the debut by the band and Kramer

are the "Lullaby" and "Cut" demos from the boxset taken from that demo tape?

Box set liner notes confirm that, yes.

From the liner notes:

-lullaby (demo) – Mimi’s first song
-cut (demo) – This song was possibly the first song we wrote. These first 2 demos were recorded in our apartment by a friend with a 4-track cassette machine after our first show in Duluth. We sent out a half dozen copies to some indie labels, got a nice note from Dischord, and an invitation to record with Kramer…

thanks! I can definitely imagine just being floored by these recordings.

For some reason, the album version of "Lullaby" is really popular in Turkey. Like, 15 million (yes, million) views on YouTube popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaSVkb_XLt4
Read the comments...half of them are in Turkish.

its their biggest song on spotify too

always been in my top 3 Low songs

I figured it must be a soundtrack appearance? but I don't see any placements for "Lullaby" on Tunefind or anything more recent than an obscure 1998 movie on IMDb. They have had more TV appearances than I'd expected, though.

https://www.tunefind.com/artist/low

i had assumed it mustve been on a soundtrack too.
Its as big a mystery as that Dinosaur Jr track that exploded

Maybe it's some fluke of the Youtube algorithm? I don't know if it gives different recommendations by country.

Also people (parents?) probably just search “lullaby” and streaming / video services count plays even if you don’t listen to the whole song.

but.....why Turkey?!

Simon you should ask them.

tried to put some of those Turkish comments through google translate and it's like this track has become some sort of anthem for the depressed/suicidal somehow (with a bit of 4llah sprinkled in amongst them as well)

found no clues as to how/why Turkey though

probably similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luM6oeCM7Yw

view count: 77 million

damn there's like a whole suicidal ideation support group formed in the comments on that one

Very excited to see the show in SF tomorrow

well that was something else

xpost, yeah, it was something else. awesome ambient noise & light show. crystalline vocals from mimi and beautiful harmonies as usual. and yet, i didn't love it as much as some of their other shows. it was a difficult list which may have been the point.

yeah almost everything from the last two albums and the state set up definitely put them at a remove from the audience where previously I've found Low shows to feel quite intimate. It got really late and we had to jet before the encore, to my dismay I'm guessing they did Over the Ocean and Sunflowers? No Murderer which is my favorite Low song of all time. But it was still pretty great. If you'd told me 20 years ago that Low would have a midset freakout that rivaled You Made Me Realize I'd have looked at you askance.

OTM. The show here back-when was more ... theatrical than I'd come to expect from them. OK, maybe not theatrical, maybe more transcendent? Something more ineffable, but that may just be projection on my part. I always liked that they were the sort of band to just casually walk on stage, set up their own stuff, plug in and start playing, like a punk band. Not that this was that different, and in fact Alan's banter (as such) was as chill and funny and approachable as ever. But watching them fill a packed gorgeous cathedral with perfect oppressively gorgeous and at times ugly sound was something else.

relistening to Double Negative today and I just need to say: ILM otm

ILM not wrong

afaik I've never listened to a Low song in my life before today but decided to try Double Negative since it won the yearly poll here. holy shit is it good. need to make my second listen a proper one, feel like there's so much detail in these tracks

If you like this one there is lots of Low you'll likely also like, though no other Low is quite like this.

heh, yeah i had a similar post in the works

Low: Recommended if you like: Low

they're a fun band to get into at this stage, i imagine, because they've been consistently good and their catalog is large

Actually, the number of albums they have was sort of preventing me from even starting, but after hearing this, I'll definitely dive into more

idk that I'd ever describe getting into Low as "fun" but there's really no bad points of entry, other than The Invisible Way (and even that one has some gems)