Low: Classic or classic?

it's mad how honest and confident this bloke is, just like 'yeah caned a load of ket and made a world-class record'. fair fucks, bj burton
― maelin, Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:49 (yesterday)

Indeed. mego-like melodic glitch was always the future of pop. Finally people are catching up to what I have been saying for 10000 years.

the Mego releases do seem like they influenced the last two Low records

I posted this a bit upthread but yeah, definitely: https://pitaemego.bandcamp.com/track/get-out-3

right on, robbie. i'm just breaking into mego & pita now via fennesz, and eschewed my instruments for just my laptop now...

re: Mego, I thought Florian Hecker's Acid In the Style of David Tudor was good, it seemed like a precursor to Rashad Becker's Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol 1

off topic, but Becker's record is one of the more incredible things I've heard in the last decade

Hitting the ground running in 2022! pic.twitter.com/jjCm8z4ZOz

— LOW (@lowtheband) October 3, 2021

wtf?

lol

i was walking around listening to 'hey what' on headphones today and a helicopter flew low overhead from behind me and i thought it was the music

im curious about bj’s process. he says in that interview upthread that they send him “songs” and have “complete trust” in him.. how much back and forth is there between them? how much of the sound is post-processing versus pedals?

i feel like the manipulated digital distortion comes more from techno and industrial than editions mego. not that it has to be one or the other

they've been pretty clear that the songs were all written beforehand & then deconstructed & arranged in the studio with bj's help.

https://www.vulture.com/2021/10/low-interview-alan-sparhawk-mimi-parker.html

this interview gives a bit of insight into the back & forth between the band & bj. i get the impression that alan really loves playing around with pedals etc. to get weird sounds, but he doesn't have the deep technical know-how that bj does, so bj's job is to execute alan & mimi's sonic or conceptual ideas, or just do his own thing and see if they like it.

thx!

it's still setting in for me that there are no drums on this record aside the last song. i literally never even noticed

It's like finding out the Doors didn't use bass. except for a band I actually care about lol

Oops apparently that's not really true? Let's just forget I mentioned that sub-Low band

there's a lot of side-chaining to the drums that got taken out which kinda gives the feel of the drums being there even though they aren't

since we're attempting to trace possible electronic music antecedents to the new Low sound, the first thing that came to mind when reading Burton comments about deleting the drums and using 'negative space' as a rhythmic device was Pan Sonic

for me though, what is most compelling is not Burton's production—which isn't really that unsual for those of us familiar with experimental electronic music, noise, etc.—but the band's openness and commitment to this new structural approach. I just love this sense of adventurousness and curiosity about finding new ways to articulate their songs, it speaks volumes to their intelligence and integrity as artists that they're still out here taking risks when they could be coasting on their rep, and this latest album shows that it's not just a late-career anomaly but a genuine development. it's really inspiring!

It's like finding out the Doors didn't use bass. except for a band I actually care about lol

― Vinnie, Sunday, October 3, 2021 6:12 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nah they used killer session guys on the records, Larry Knetchel from the Wrecking Crew, Harvey Brooks (Dylan,Miles Davis), Jerry Scheff (Elvis), Lonnie Mack and some others

If you watch the Instagram video Alan posted of his pedal chain on "More" it's pretty amazing how he's able to come up with much of the noise and randomness without too much studio trickery. One of his pedals iirc was kind of a boutique harmonizer with all these randomizer attributes, which really helps fill in the space but also, and more importantly, accents and emphasizes all these overtones brought out by the distortion pedals. That's one reason I was surprised there were no synths on the record (though I guess in the video Alan *is* using a guitar synth pedal). Various drones and notes sort of appear and hover mysteriously in the background, but what I just figured were keyboard drones were actually the decay and delay of the guitar attack being randomly held, modulated and mutated.

Yeah, I just watched that video and it’s amazing how clean the melody is at first before he turns on the synth and metal(?) pedals. Goes from sounding by the books Low to a riff that could’ve been on a Deftones album.

Trust came out nineteen years ago today, and so I've been listening while withstanding an absolutely slammed day at work. Stealing away from my current task to say that this record remains one of my favorites of theirs, particularly in terms of lyrical content— there's a sinister quality to the lyrics here that is comparatively unrivalled, if sometimes approached, by other albums.

I also think that my first experiences of this record are a perfect way to encounter it— listening to it on repeat on long bike rides on lonely roads past flat Ohio cornfields.

going to start the poll next week if anyone wants to start thinking about it

Yes, please do it ufo! I'm actually nearly complete with listening to all their albums at this point. Long Division was the latest for me - a few excellent songs in the first half but not as strong as Curtain Hits the Cast, which has a similar mood

my ballot will be ready

I hope people don't hesitate to trust their instincts on where to rank the HEY WHAT songs.

I don't generally participate in polls, because my mind has moved beyond being able to rank anything, but this band would be particularly difficult, since so many of their songs kind of fit the same mode and none of them are bad. Plus, there are so many of them!

So, hats off, you OCD lunatics!

I thought we were doing an albums poll, a songs poll...i don't know if I can do that.

as in, that's not something I've ever even considered.

albums is hard enough.

Ha, I'm not even sure I could rank the albums.

I could do it, but the top 5 would be agonizing.

Right now, though, the first record is my favorite.

Because this band's so consistent, the top 10 songs and top 5 albums are probably going to surprise no matter what places. Can't wait.

I keep loose tabs on my fave Low songs, I could get a Top 25 fairly easily

Do You Know How to POLLtz?: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low

here it is

They opened for one of the Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah shows last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD5Xa510XuE

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

great video, especially the first half. i feel bad, i ended up playing the youtube on mute at 0.5x speed, along with the streaming track, so that the video cuts were twice as slow for the first few minutes - there are some really beautiful shots in there that just go by too fast at 1 per second

Here's a wonderful, intimate, rare interview with Mimi about their career — she talks about their beginnings, life on the road, balancing the band/marriage aspects, and her faith. She also shares she was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in December 2020 and went through chemo and surgery from January to August last year (thankfully she's on the other side now!):

https://www.mixcloud.com/SHEROES/sheroes-radio-episode-58-featuring-mimi-parker-of-low/

wow thanks for sharing

I had noticed her wearing a hat during the weekly sessions when she was there but never thought that was going on - thank gxd she's over it

Seeing them tonight, stoked.

Also seeing them tonight. Got a nice front and center spot at the balcony. Ready for this building to break in half.

Predictably but still kind of surprisingly, mostly songs from the last three albums, with a focus on the new one and only one or two from before that (and only one or two from before *that*). But what more could anyone want from a band than what they do every night and on every album?

so was it good or not

It was good! They're always good!

my ex saw the show, last minute ticket replacement. i always talked and listened to low but she didn't really like them. she came away absolutely worshipping them, instant megafan. i saw low once, but it was when they were making their worst albums. there are only a few years of low that I don't absolutely worship myself, and it was during that time i saw themn. but she was so glad and happy about the show that she actually thanked ME for some reason, by text, afterward, like i had anything at all to do with it! it doesn't make sense but it completely does, sometimes when you're introduced to the thing you love you want to acknowledge everyone and everything along the way leading up

well, that did it, i'm seeing low for the first time at the end of march