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As everybody's noticed over the past year or so, the Minnesota trio
Low have hit a vein that doesn't seem to be drying up. Where once
they came off as overly image-conscious and rather precious (their
cover of Joy Division's "Transmission" bordered on self-parody),
what's come across more than anything else recently has been their
sincerity — their desire to make music that affects listeners
deeply and alters the mood of the room in which it's played. Ever
since they left the fake-indie Vernon Yard for less cynical label
pastures, their attention has seemed almost maniacally focused on
honing their craft, and on bringing the unique thing they do into
clear focus. The Dutch label De Konkurrent does a series of short CDs
called "In the Fishtank" in which bands touring Holland get two days
in a 24-track studio to make 20 or 30 minutes' worth of music. Here,
Low take beautiful advantage of an opportunity for experimentation,
inviting the also-touring Dirty Three along to help out. The Dirty
Three, an instrumental three-piece from Australia, specialize in
epic-length, violin-heavy slow rave-ups that evoke a
Quaalude-enriched Velvet Underground. They bring a more physical
element to Low's occasionally clinical approach to song-making, and
it makes for enchanting listening. Things hang together somewhat more
loosely than they usually do in Low's blueprint-for-sadness fare, and
when this uncharacteristic hey-let's-play-a-song feel lands on a
cover of Neil Young's "Down By the River," the song blazes like an
open fire. Of the six songs here, only one (the banjo-thick,
lyrically thin "Lordy") suffers from the
"shoulda-thought-twice-about-that-one" syndrome that often plagues
spontaneous collaborations, and even "Lordy" redeems itself once its
vocal part has faded. A wonderful record for anyone who finds process
at least as interesting and exciting as product.
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