Listening Diary 20241203

Posted on Tue 03 December 2024 in Listening Diary

  • Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God - https://alansparhawk.bandcamp.com/album/white-roses-my-god: First post end of Low solo LP from Sparhawk is primarily electronic, with a vocoder on the vocals that is disorienting in variable ways. It's too tempting to read things into the drum machines and obscuring of the words, but as it progresses it finds a path and some moments as intense as anything Low created.
  • Underworld - Strawberry Hotel - https://underworld.bandcamp.com/album/strawberry-hotel: Looking at The Quietus' 2024 Hundred Best LPs reminded me that I hadn't bought this yet, so I had to rectify that. Underworld, like The Fall and Mogwai, are always the same and always different, and this one is at times melodic and at others stripped back, with the usual grooves sometimes pared down to 7" rather than 12" single length and even not being grooves at all. There's a theme and more of a collective effort to it, but it may need a couple of listens to work out what it is.
  • Shellac - To All Trains - https://shellac.bandcamp.com/album/to-all-trains: I also didn't buy this at the time, wasn't sure if I wanted to hear it after Albini's death, but of course it isn't there this time, just a speeding train of taut riffs to get dragged behind, the best half hour's joyride you'll have today.

music