LOW
LOW return to Australia this April after an almost 6-year absence making their Melbourne Recital Hall debut and for headline performances right around the country.
Formed in 1993 around the husband-wife duo of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, Low have produced eleven albums (including 2015’s Ones & Sixes), recorded with Steve Albini, collaborated with the Dirty Three and had their songs recorded by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant for his grammy nominated Band of Joy album and used by clothing manufacturer GAP for a TV advert.
For more than two decades, LOW have experimented with the intricacies and finer details of music. In a musical landscape of overindulgence and audio compression, it certainly makes a change to hear a band for whom every strum and drumbeat sounds delicately poised. – The Guardian
Produced in the cabin studio of Bon Iver’s Justin Vermon, Ones and Sixes is arguably LOW’s most fully integrated album to date; a richly satisfying and coherent work drawing together many of the different strands of their career so far including No Comprende, a favourite of digital radio station Double J and the archetypal LOW track full of the tension and the push and pull that makes their music so compelling; so thrilling.
The band’s strengths are here in abundance, but they are reimagined, twisted into new shape and given a visceral intensity that is utterly irresistible – Clash Music
As ever, strong stuff in every way – Record Collector
After 21 years, rock’s premier Mormon husband-and-wife team just keep getting better. – MOJO
In Australia LOW have performed at both Perth and Sydney Festivals and appeared alongside Sonic Youth and Died Pretty playing their 2001 album Things We Lost In the Fire for the ATP / Don’t Look Back classic album series. For their 2016 tour the Minnesota 3-piece have eschewed the festival season in favour of intimate surrounds best suited to witness their quiet yet intense work. Former Drones drummer Mike Noga – no stranger to the LOW camp having supported them for much of their European tour – will join the tour, performing solo, as special guest on all shows.
The group was effortless — Alan Sparhawk’s guitars and vocals weaving into Mimi Parker’s hypnotic pulse she laid down behind her stripped down kit, her vocal lines skating above, below, and around Alan’s melodies. Steve Garrington’s bass lines gently pressed the band forward, all building toward the inevitable breakdown, which we all knew was coming, but it still felt like a magical reveal. The band reached a new level by retreating, by creating more space and a deeper valley of sound and contour greeted us. – Rhapsody January 2016
Tickets for LOW plus guest Mike Noga are on-sale Thursday 21st January.
Video: No Comprende (from Ones and Sixes)
Video: Try To Sleep (from C’mon)
Video: Sunflower (from Things We Lost in the Fire)