Bleep

Twenty-five years deep into their recording career, Low manage to confound expectations with new album Double Negative. Exploring the grey area between the sludgy tape delays and bass and grainy heavy work of Andy Stott and Grouper's drone research.

Describing it best, Sub Pop says: "‘Double Negative’ is, indeed, a record perfectly and painfully suited for our time. Loud and contentious and commanding, Low fights for the world by fighting against it. It begins in pure bedlam, with a beat built from a loop of ruptured noise waging war against the paired voices of Sparhawk and Parker the moment they begin to sing during the massive ‘Quorum’. For forty minutes they indulge the battle, trying to be heard amid the noisy grain, sometimes winning and sometimes being tossed toward oblivion."

For the long-term fans, many signature Low notes touchstones are here, yet it really takes a while for them to break through the surface of this murky sound swamp.