Press and Radio
underground music review
Low, I Could Live in Hope
Genre: Rock
by: Shlomo Sher
Low plays music for sub-basements. Most of the songs on this album sound as if they arise from somewhere deep below the floor and although they reach upwards, never are able to free themselves from the hole they've been trapped in. The percussion is sparse and minimalist, the guitar is gentle with barely a hint of hope, the bass is sub-terranean and the vocal harmonies endlessly haunt the soundscape. "I Could Live in Hope" (1994), their first album, makes me feel like I'm driving alone in the dark on a desert highway and dawn is barely peaking over the horizon. The endless space is silent with the sounds of Low.
The trio, haling from Duluth Minnesota are the acknowledged model band of the "slowcore" Indie movement, which they have largely helped define. Their website describes their sound as "Joy Division meets Simon & Garfunkel" and indeed there is a rare meeting here between gothic and folk sensibilities. The closest I've come to finding something similar is a rare 20+ minute b-side instrumental the Cure did for Faith (why didn't they ever release that damn song on cd?!?). Their sound can get into that edgy darkness that's makes for uncomfortable creativity and into moaning personal explorations. But it's the ultimate sincerity of the whole thing (unlike any sort of fantasy gothic experience) that makes it all work so well. The sound is stripped of so many of the polished extras that one is tempted to add to it, and the feelings it conveys seem likewise stripped of their protective outer layers. When the focus is on the female vocalist and I feel myself inside a comfortable progressive feminine home& a window apartment in San Francisco, an artist loft in SoHo, a Fairfax district beacon of sensitivity within thick protective walls. I'm glad I'm left alone to dig into my sadness.
Since this release in 1994, Low have established themselves as a core presence in the indie scene and have released several albums and EPs in which they have continued to experiment with slight variations of the same distinctive sound they started out with. Along the way they've also managed to cover artists such as: Joy Division, Soul Coughing, BeeGees, John Denver, Lynard Skynard and the Beach Boys. Adding to such a diverse set of influences, they've also done a set of their own ever so slow and gentle music in the style and dress of the Misfits!
Listen to Low in the dark (I'll allow you one damn candle!), alone and in complete silence, or don't listen to it all. It'll demand from you to take its presence seriously, don't bother if you're not into that kind of thing. Throw any of the songs on replay and let yourself drift asleep & I've found this album to induce some of the most interesting dreams I've ever had. That alone is worth listening for.
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