Low: Classic or classic?

wow, yeah...hard to tell if this is supposed all sound like this or whether they did something to it to mark the leaks. at least one song is pretty unlistenable to me. but there is beauty in it.

p meticulous marking then!

it's not marking, since the officially released singles are of the same production. matt h is otm tho -- hearing them live will shed some light.

listening to their first couple of LPs today. man, i wish kramer was still producing records.

OK im decided. the use of compression on this LP in accordance with its dynamic range is fucking phenomenal.

I noticed that too - the quiet parts are *actually* quiet and not just in comparison to the walls of noise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7088HRmhNaE

wasted good silverware on ya.

"Disarray" is now officially available:

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

Awesome.

Needs a remix EP imho

How I love that Transmission cover - 2nd song - from the 1996 show. By playing it slower they make it better as it lasts longer. That simple trick works like a charm here.

For you polite non-leak-listeners, now streaming at NPR:

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/06/644584017/first-listen-low-double-negative

This seriously has to be one of their 2 or 3 best albums ever.

i'm not polite, but i was kind of just waiting until i could stream it somewhere, thanks!

holy shit this album

otm

heavier than a death in the family

"tempest" is like falling between two vibrating pixels

effect of the whole album is like listening in on someone's nightmare

yeah it has such a profound cumulative effect that in retrospect I wish they hadn't released any advance tracks at all (though releasing the opening trio was a smart compromise)

this makes at least two dark & (spatially) deep albums w a song titled "tempest" this decade

the other being koi no yokan hell yeah

yesterday i saw 'first reformed' and 'double negative' came to my mind all the time. after week listening to it i'm still speechless.

Crushing.

Wow, this is not starting out like I expected it to.

Yeah, I listened to it yesterday and loved it. Looking forward to my first cold sad winter night listen, it’ll be absolutely perfect then.

Completely blown away by this. Who does this twelve albums into their career?

neil young released "hawks and doves" for album 12

That's quite a good album!

Others:
Joni Mitchell - Dog Eat Dog (oh dear)
Bob Dylan - Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (never listened to it)
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (!)

I see more UK & European dates have been added to the tour for the new year, including a Glasgow gig in January. Yay!

This is amazing. The way they alter abrasive, sound sculpture pieces with their spiritual, harmonic tunes is absolutely breathtaking. There is a lot to bite on here.

longtime Low-ambivalent human here to say: what the FUCK

what the FUCK

otm

I don't know why people are so surprised by this, since they've experimented with drone/noise/electronic elements plenty before. Not always on their albums, I suppose.

I really want to love the album but it hasn't really clicked for me yet, hoping I just need to hear it in the right context. Mimi does sound amazing on the ones where she's singing lead.

Yeah, I also feel like this album is a logical extension of some of the ideas they were pursuing on Ones and Sixes, which I also thought was a super-strong album.

I'm surprised by the notion that people who have long been ambivalent about Low would suddenly be won over by this album - it strikes me as standing in relation to their prior work in much the same way as the new Jon Hassell album does to his (Hassell is also a good answer for "who pulls this kind of trick some 12 albums or more into his career?") - an invigorating incorporation of new elements to expand the existing blueprint rather than replace it wholesale.

fwiw, i'm not saying i'm won over, although being ambivalent and then maybe not ambivalent might imply as much.

i'm not even sure i'm won over yet. this is more my experience:

i know the last album i heard from low was ten years ago, but i wasn't expecting this at all. i'm mesmerized.

― Nourry, Thursday, July 5, 2018 2:31 AM (two months ago)

basically i'm saying: "I listened to Curtain and Lost in the Fire and Great Destroyer several times each and thought I knew what Low was but this album is not what I thought Low was"

The only thing I don't like about this album is that it makes Ones and Sixes retroactively sound like a tentative, tame attempt at what this album is up to.

basically i'm saying: "I listened to Curtain and Lost in the Fire and Great Destroyer several times each and thought I knew what Low was but this album is not what I thought Low was"

― alpine static, Monday, September 10, 2018 11:48 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that's fair - this album makes more sense in the context of Drums and Guns and Ones and Sixes and some stuff they put on EPs over the years.

i only heard 'ones and sixes' after 'double negative' and now i get where this is coming from. but i'm still mesmerized. and it is possibly my favourite record of the year so far (with the new jon hassell and opn's age of).
i'm kinda of ashamed that in the last years i stopped paying much attention to their records. such a stupid "decision".
in the end of the month i plan seeing them live (the last time I saw them was in 2007!).

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

Best thing they've done since 'Drums & Guns' and the 'Bombscare' EP 18 (!) years ago.

I'm surprised by the notion that people who have long been ambivalent about Low would suddenly be won over by this album - it strikes me as standing in relation to their prior work in much the same way as the new Jon Hassell album does to his (Hassell is also a good answer for "who pulls this kind of trick some 12 albums or more into his career?")

Since I made that comment, I'll answer. I was a consistent listener up to The Great Destroyer, but outside of the occasional "Drone Not Drones" show I've been one of the ambivalent - dutifully listening to each new album since, but never making a deep enough connection to keep coming back. Maybe I wanted them to go further?

Forgotten but great track - "Half Light" from the Mothman Prophecies soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-LaFHAfQc

I'll be the first to admit I didn't pay close attention to the last two, but this new one is so incredible it makes me think either a) I should have listened closer or b) they were indeed forgettable, because I doubt they were as memorable/amazing as this one. Getting ... Depeche Mode vibes here?

ones and sixes is an awesome record

Other vibes I'm getting from the new one is ... Fennesz? I also suspect this might be the best, prettiest album my family might make me turn off.

Or, like, Wolfgang Voigt?

The new record, and especially the way it starts off, reminds me of Microphones' Mt. Eerie record. Crawling from out of the rubble and noise to find a pitch-perfect, pastoral and awe-inspiring beauty in quietness and precision. It's everything and more you could want from Low.

xxp you should've been listening closer imo. what's so remarkable to me about this album is that it manages to be top 3 in a band with consistently excellent output

I was a consistent listener up to The Great Destroyer, but outside of the occasional "Drone Not Drones" show I've been one of the ambivalent - dutifully listening to each new album since, but never making a deep enough connection to keep coming back. Maybe I wanted them to go further?

I admit this is kinda where I've been at, and ever since the leak earlier this year the sheer avalanche of praise has kicked in my...I will never call it 'contrarian,' but simply my 'okay, I'm sure it's great so that actually means I can wait to get around to this' reflex. (Which has kept my sanity more than once over the years -- rather than rushing into something which I'm sure I'll like I'd rather get to it when the impulse strikes.) That said everyone mentioning about how it suits the current sociopolitical situation has left me even more guarded; I specifically avoided ANOHNI's album the other year for that reason, but unlike ANOHNI I geniunely like Low's music and have from the get-go so I'll approach this a little more warmly. Still, though.

enh I think the "this is the Low album about Our Moment!!" or whatever argument doesn't hold up at all

the sonics are more blwon-out but it's no more emotionally fraught than say Trust

That said everyone mentioning about how it suits the current sociopolitical situation has left me even more guarded

these people are wrong