LOW – Drums and Guns

(CD, Sub Pop)

There are some handfuls of bands with a vision that includes reducing the traditional folk song to textures and arrange them in epic scales by using just rather simple instrumentations, but none of those does it as consequently as Low. And none of them have been at it as long as Low have. This is their tenth full length studio album. Their dedication is sincere and deeply rooted, and their musical body as expanded into all kinds of different directions and spawned many ideas and now encompasses many fields. There is the funky bass on the song “Hatchet” on this record. Or the whole album’s worth of christmas songs from years back. Or the harmonic a capella singing intro of “Your Poison” before the heavy drums set in, just to be taken back the next moment.

And that probably already sums up the fascination this band is able to spread, because although the songs sound simple on the surface, they are stuck full with ideas and experiments. Most of them will only be revealed to very attentive listeners or after the third or fourth round with “Drums and guns”. But the same was true for “The great destroyer” (another unusually violent record title in comparison to the atmosphere of the music, I think) and it grew to be one of the best records of last year. Even though it was released in 2005 already.

Sounds are at the core centre of Alan Sparhawk’s, Matt Livingston and Mimi Parker’s attention once again. Even though recorded with regular instruments and in the regular trio-band setup some of the sounds and songs turn out like careful electronica, so strong is their focus on atmospheres and drones. It is all about tones, the colours of sounds and how they fit together. Sometimes harshly distorted with screeching organ sounds (“Violent past”), then refined and delicate, almost like atmospheric electro-acoustic stuff. Rarely do the melodies contain more than two or three notes and if so, then they are far apart. Music like this takes long breathing patterns from the musicians. On the front the male and female vocals of Sparhawk and Parker either turn against each other or work in unison, but never out of key. Inside the dense textures harmony still rules, because some rules in art open up a lot of freedom, whereas full freedom turns to shit.

Taking this into account it is remarkable how heavy and strong a lot of the songs have turned out. “In Silence” grows to enormous density and power, very much like some tracks by Godspeed! You Black emperor grow. And also the record as whole takes that curve from the distorted guitar mixed to vocals and stomping percussions in the beginning to the long fade out at the end, “drums and guns” makes up an ever growing field for contentment and connotation. Especially the beginning of the first song taken in account with the words being sung, about all the soldiers and children that will die, is a strong statement and will make all the reviewers remark upon it, for sure.

Of course, this is a dark album, and rightfully so. Is it also remark upon the current political situation? It is probably unfair to attribute a political message to any band from the USA that releases a dark and brooding record, just because the state of affairs of the alternative or avantgarde music scene of the USA is viewed as dark and brooding at the moment. If it is a political remark, then it is a very encapsulated and idiosyncratic one, that is not easily to decipher. Low have always focused on the dissolution of personal relationships, especially love at end, in their lyrics, so if you want to take that as a metaphor for the alienation of the USA in the rest of the world, then you probably would have to go back and recheck that idea with all the other releases of this band.