ALBUM: Lowtide – ‘Southern Mind’

Going South isn’t always such a bad thing, especially when it’s the focus of Australian band Lowtide‘s beautiful new album, Southern Mind. Released via Opposite Number/Rice Is Nice earlier this month, the record is a “uniquely Australian take” on the landscapes and politics of the South, but it transcends these contexts via ambient guitars and shimmering vocals.

As bassist and vocalist Lucy Buckeridge explains, “South can be a positive thing, a change” and listeners will be nodding in agreement as the eponymous reverb-saturated ‘Southern Mind’ opens the record. It’s six minutes of dizzy guitar and dreamy vocals that sound like they’re curated by a distant relative of The Cure’s Robert Smith. The same can be said for following track ‘Alibi’.

Giles Fielke’s & Lucy’s dual vocals on ‘Elizabeth Tower’ align to create a nostalgic, hazy soundscape, while ‘A.C.’ rings out in the same cool, atmospheric style, urging listeners to “celebrate yourself.” ‘Olinda’ is an elegant two minutes of melodic, sweeping guitar effects that seamlessly flow in to ‘On The Fence’, another alternative Lowtide lullaby designed to distract listeners and dissolve their negative thoughts. ‘The Fear’ does the same, it’s an aural wish for a life with “No more pain and no more mistakes.”

Penultimate track ‘Window’ is a six minute long breath of fresh air, before ‘Fault Lines’ closes this collection of enveloping, drifting sounds. Lowtide might be going South on their latest release, but it’s a joy to step inside their Southern Mind and lose ourselves in all they have to offer.

Southern Mind is available to download here. Follow Lowtide on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: LIINES – ‘Shallow’

Having supported Desperate Journalist and Nelson Can on tour last year, Manchester trio (and GIHE faves) LIINES have fast been gaining attention from the likes of John Kennedy, The Quietus and BBC Introducing, as well as earning the title of ‘Ones To Watch 2018’ from yours truly. And, having cemented our love of them by blowing us away with their riotous, impassioned energy at The Finsbury last month, the band have blasted into our ears once more with their gritty, brand new single.

Filled with the band’s trademark dark, brooding power, ‘Shallow’ starts off with steady, stripped-back beats as it builds to a high-octane climax of raging riffs and throbbing bass lines. Oozing an immense, thrashing energy and the raw, commanding vocals of Zoe McVeigh, it’s another intense blast of perfect post-punk with shades of the likes of Savages of Sleater Kinney.

Of the track, McVeigh explains:

“It’s relentless and on loop, which I hope shows how it feels when obsessive feelings develop and won’t let up. I wanted a song that made the listener feel like they were suffocating and almost relieved when it was over.”

‘Shallow’ is out now, and LIINES’ debut album Stop – Start is set for release on 4th May via Reckless Yes Records. Catch LIINES live at the following dates:

2nd March – Night People, Manchester
10th March – The Audacious Art Experiment, Sheffield
16th March – Tooting Tram and Social (for John Kennedy), London
30 March – The Golden Lion, Todmorden
13th April – Sound, Food & Drink, Liverpool

Mari Lane 
@marimindles

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ALBUM: Divide & Dissolve – ‘Abomination’

A sonic force to be reckoned with, Melbourne-based duo Divide & Dissolve‘s second album Abomination, released via Dero Arcade is a collection of heavy-instrumentals designed to “decolonize, dismantle white supremacy and empower people of colour & Indigenous people.”

Together, Takiaya Reed (saxophone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) seek to undermine the forces that oppress them. The duo have been receiving praise and support since the release of their debut Basic in March 2017, which earned them the accolade of ‘Best Heavy Album’ at The Age Music Victoria Awards. This year they’ve been granted a support slot with Poliça on their forthcoming US tour, and after listening to Abomination, it’s easy to see why Divide & Dissolve are currently in demand.

Opening the album is the eponymous ‘Abomination’. It’s five minutes and fifty seconds of unnerving riffs and ceaseless cymbals, crashing together to form a desolate but powerful soundscape. It paves the way for eerie second track ‘Assimilation’, poised between chaos and calm from the moment it starts. There’s an intense power in the lack of lyrical content on these songs, which feels reflective of the repressed minorities the pair seek to support with their music. ‘Cultural Extermination’ is another shining example of this.

The spoken word from Minori Sanchiz-Fung on ‘Reversal’ is incredibly poignant. “By using English, I have let out many violent spirits. Words that I trust would in English, fling themselves against the wall,” speaks Minori from her “Immigrant Mind” in a composed, but visceral manner. Subtle, reverb-heavy guitar scores her incredible poetry, making this collaboration an intriguing and important listen. ‘Resistance’ follows with its manic sax sounds that ring out like defiant sirens in the face of adversity, resisting all notions of conformity.

The brief but bold ‘Re-appropriation’ demands immediate attention with more of the Divide & Dissolve’s crashing cymbals and abrasive riffs, before the penultimate ‘Reparations’ seeks to musically right the wrongs that white supremacy and patriarchy have inflicted on indigenous communities. Its slow-building, atmospheric nature seethes and soothes in equal measure, before ‘Indigenous Sovereignty’ closes this exploration of the unheard.

The eight tracks on Abomination are a platform on which Divide & Dissolve “transform the experience of space and time” and draw on the experiences of their ancestors and surroundings to create their unique and extraordinary sounds. It’s instrumentalist activism that seeks to disrupt the norm – and we love it.

Abomination is available to stream  & download now. Follow Divide & Dissolve on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: @annasnowsill

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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ALBUM: Anna von Hausswolff – ‘Dead Magic’

In case its cover wasn’t enough of a giveaway, Anna von Hausswolff commences her fourth album with distant footsteps, melancholy synths and an organ sound straight out of a horror movie. It’s a confirmation that Dead Magic will live up to both halves of its title’s promise, and appropriate for the opening section of a twelve-minute epic, entitled ‘The Truth, The Glow, The Fall’.   

The organ is almost certainly the one found in Copenhagen’s Marmokirken – the Marble Church, in which the album was recorded. Its setting can’t have hurt Dead Magic‘s flights of gothic fantasy, created in part by producer Randall Dunn, whose collaborations have previously included Earth, Sunn O)))) and Boris. His production adds an extra layer of atmosphere, carrying Von Hausswolff’s sound away from the folk-metal/post-rock tendency of previous album The Miraculous and into a new, but no less dark, chamber-pop landscape. If the organ and its counter-pointed shimmer of violin is ‘The Truth..’ of the opening track, then the twinkles of synths sitting on top of the arpeggio in the track’s middle section is its ‘…Glow’. Finally, Von Hausswolff’s voice is left echoing over the sound of alarming, descending synths and this is our ‘Fall’ into her world, and into Dead Magic.

The following track, ‘The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra’ is a ballad in the tradition of Cave and Harvey – its stompy drum and folksy guitar particularly reminiscent of the likes of ‘C’mon Billy’, albeit with a Siouxsie Sioux vocal. Its ending flips the script though, its final two minutes giving us Kate Bush-esque top-notes over an increasingly doom-laden, orchestral rock backing. It’s still theatrical, but on another stage entirely.

 Third track ‘Ugly and Vengeful’ is a none-more-bleak slow build, Fever Ray-ish oddity, before von Hausswolff’s vocals kick in fully after six minutes, leading to a operatic crescendo with Anna as its phantom. The track, the central sixteen minute epic of Dead Magic, closes with a final third that is part dark Goat psych, part sinister carnival.

‘The Marble Eye’ is a relatively pacey five minute organ concerto, still perfectly in keeping with the album’s sombre feel. Closer ‘Källans Återuppståndelse’ opens like an instrumental, before, admidst the electrical storm, von Hausswolff’s voice and the analogue sound of violins break through. It’s a reminder that, even in the age of the internet, something exists beyond the digital realm, unknowable, and magical.  

As part of the promotion of the album, Anna von Hausswolff chose a poem by Walter Ljungquist, in which the Swedish writer observes “[T]here are no legends in our time”. By creating a spectral, dark wonderland of the sublime, both within and without, von Hausswolff has perhaps shown that the magic and the legends aren’t completely gone.

Dead Magic, the upcoming album from Anna von Hausswolff, is out 2nd March via City Slang. You can catch her live in London at The Dome on 12th March.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Photo Credit: Gianluca Grasselli

 

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