Press and Radio

Artist Low
Title Drums And Guns
Label Sub Pop
Mojo
By Johnny Sharp
Rating: 4 stars
Published: April 2007

After 13 years together, Low are getting sonically adventurous in their old age. On 2005's The Great Destroyer, unprecendented levels of rattle and hum were thrown into their characteristic delicate mix of ghostly harmonies, whispering timpani and brooding bass. Drums and Guns develops that sound further, as tracks such as Breaker and Pretty People are shrouded in fizzing, malevolent white noise, cattle trucks rattle in the distance on Dragonfly, and Violent Past resembles a warped, distorted hymn. Sandinista's challenge, "Where would you go if the gun fell in your hand?", also relects an ambitious theme of war's innocent victims and villians. The sublime combination of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's trance-inducing voices are still their trump card, once again making for a record that sounds like absolutely no one else on the planet.

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