Listening to the new Low album on vinyl for the first time is a disconcerting thing. As the distorted loops of Quorum float into view, you’ll find yourself checking the needle for fluff right up until the point that the twin vocals of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker emerge, albeit cut up and distressed far beyond the tolerance even of that other departure from the norm, The Great Destroyer. The result, a dark interpolation of Kid A era Radiohead, Toro Y Moi and even Soundtracks for the blind-era Swans, is both subtly disturbing and one of the great musical reinventions from a band who have already invented their own genre and, thus, should have nothing left to prove. With dancing blood a hazy lullaby that feels like a Low remix, it is the beautiful, Aphex Twin-referencing fly that sees the album developing a sonic character beyond the ambient, Mimi’s gorgeous voice soaring above the rippling electronica in a manner that is both typically Low and quite unlike anything they’ve put their name to until now. Things take a turn for the darker on Tempest, and the listener finds the music cruelly distorted, as if the band are afraid of exposing the delicate central melody to the world without some form of armour. Mercifully short, a lingering impression of beauty remains, despite the layers of noise in which it is swamped, and it leaves Always up to round out side one of the LP. The most typically Low-esque song of the first side, Always Up is a moment of calm that brings the first half to an elegant close.
Opening side two, Always trying to work it out takes traditional Low and feeds it back on itself; reverse loops, eerie harmonies and snatches of guitar vying for the lead as BJ Burton unleashes his bag of tricks to offer the band a new set of soundscapes with which to play. Lurking in the darkness that sits beneath the guiding light of the opening track, the subterranean rumble of The son, the sun is ominous in the extreme, as if Low have been absorbing the eerie work of Elliot Goldenthal, and it is a relief when the gentle guitar of dancing and fire is allowed to penetrate the darkness and emerge, blinking, into the light. A slight track that could easily fit into Neil Young’s acoustic work (an artist with which Low have long had an affinity), dancing and fire is another moment of sublime calm before the menacing poor sucker harks back to the tougher edges of the great destroyer filtered through the lens of latter-day Radiohead for good measure. Things turn even stranger as the distorted percussion of the elegiac Rome (always in the dark) seeks to recall Ulver’s latest work, before Disaray brings the album to a curious conclusion, stuttering waves of distortion layered under a melody so unashamedly pop it could have been drawn from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, highlighting, perhaps better than anywhere else, the clever juxtaposition the band have introduced into their songwriting on this outing.
As we’ve come to expect from Sub Pop vinyl packages, Double negative is simply, but competently packaged with the vinyl housed in tip-on sleeve with printed inner bag. Artwork, as is to be expected with a Low release, is pretty minimal, with only the cover offering anything other than text. Otherwise, the inner sleeve features credits on one side and an ominous sheet of black on the other. There is no insert, although an MP3 download card is included for those who like their music on the go. The vinyl itself is beautifully pressed with no discernible surface noise, and it is one of those albums that seems made for the format, the lush sounds perfectly suited to the warm presentation of vinyl.
In some ways, Double Negative, recalls those other doyens of the US alt scene, The Flaming Lips, who underwent a similar sonic conversion with The Terror. However, whilst the terror all but obliterated the Flaming Lips of old, Double Negative seems to wrap the slow-moving harmonies of Low in a warm cocoon of loving static, the result as blissed out and dreamy as a shot of morphine. There’s beauty here, but tread off the path even for a second and there are things that will bite – the taut vocals of poor sucker or the fear-inducing noise of the son, the sun, for example. It’s nothing short of inspirational to hear Low sounding so fired-up and innovative, and the resultant album is nothing short of a masterpiece. Arguably the band’s finest album in years, double negative sees Low step out from their comfort zone (and everyone else’s) to deliver an album that draws upon a wide sonic palette to deliver something truly unique. 9
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