Music

Low, Art School, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

five stars

A performance by Minnesota-bred trio Low is a particularly intimate transaction between the band and the audience, and over the fifteen years I've been going to their Glasgow shows there have been misses as well as evenings of atmospheric wonder. This fell squarely into the latter category, despite - or perhaps because - it made hardly any concessions to the band's heritage at all and concentrated squarely on what the partnership of guitarist Alan Sparhawk and drummer Mimi Parker and their current bassist Steve Garrington are doing right now.

New Sub Pop album Ones and Sixes, beautifully packaged in Peter Liversidge art, does share many of the tropes of the band's entire back catalogue, chiefly the beautiful singing of Sparhawk and Parker, both individually and combined, as well as a command of dynamics and the contrast between the bravest spare sound and sonic density. But while its Jeff Tweedy-produced predecessor The Invisible Way essayed a classic Low sound, the new disc embraces more contemporary electronica in its arrangements while also including a particularly strong set of songs, many of which employ lyrical imagery that might be traceable to the couple's Christian faith, but equally have resonance in personal relationships.

The album formed the bulk of the set, opening with Gentle and Kid on the Corner and winding to a close with Landslide (which sounded much less of-a-type live than it does on disc) and the superb DJ. It was telling that even a rearranged Monkey was recognised by the knowledgeable crowd from its opening notes, but equally that only a desultory call for old favourite Sunflower suggested that anyone was unhappy not to hear more familiar material. Low's followers know the deal.