July 5, 2007

Drums and Guns

For The Great Destroyer, their 2005 Sub Pop debut (and 7th album overall), Low quickened their paces and rustled up a new sound. Producer Dave Fridmann helped out in ‘05 and is back for Drums and Guns, Low’s 2007 follow up, a return to pre- Great Destroyer form. Slowing down again and training the musical lamps on Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk’s austere voices, the trio sets a decidedly somber tone (the album’s opening line, delivered with pregnant pauses: “All soldiers, they’re all gonna die/And all the little babies, they’re all gonna die” and album-closing song titles: “Murderer” and “Violent Past”). Parker and Sparhawk’s voices enchant eerily, a whiff of electonica here and a haunted handclap there melding with Matt Livingston’s bass to give the music some dark, gorgeous machine undertones–stark, martial, and noise-brushed at once. Fridmann finds all kinds of places to add tone, color and sound, keeping the tempos slow and the mood hypnotic. This is the art that wartime breeds. –Andrew Bartlett