LOW Vinyl & CDs

Review: Minnesota couple Low have been around the block, lets say roughly 25 times, and it's been the Seattle-based Sub Pop label that's really become home to their music after several drops for the ambient-laced Kranky. I mean, hey, some have even called their music 'dinner party epochal'. Static and noise and other more experimental techniques in production provide a livid colour to this album, take in "Dancing in Blood" for example, with its industrial and subdued goth influences, or the pumping white noise and distortion of album opener "Quorum". Further down the tracklist is "Fly", a naturally melancholic number but far from depressive, with this track in particular hitting a sweet spot in the same way Massive Attack's "Teardrop" does. Very cool LP.

Review: Summer is drawing to a close, so what better time to avail ourselves of the eleventh record by these masters of melancholia. Low's back catalogue has proven them to be a band possessed of a consistency to match their emotional heft, and Ones & Sixes is no exception quality-wise - the band dispenses indelible and satisfyingly chilly ditties which balance out exquisite harmonies, fetching songcraft and understated charm, whilst also offering curveballs redolent of a band whose less-is-more aesthetic doesn't preclude an experimental slant - the electronic textures around the album's edge and the surprisingly poppy 'What Part Of Me' being cases in point.