THE LOW ANTHEM
HARMONIC presents
THE LOW ANTHEM
+ guestsTickets on sale Thursday May 10th priced €20 (including booking fee) from www.tickets.ie, www.whelanslive.com, & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide 0818 719 300 – Republic of Ireland customers // 0844 277 4455 – Northern Ireland customers // 00353 1 456 9569 – International customers
“Magnificent sadness. The Low Anthem render the ghosts and damaged souls in these songs with delicate precision.” DAVID FRICKE, ROLLING STONE
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/smart-flesh-20110222#ixzz1ttz2xaYS
“Joyous, pensive, cathartic and hymnal in equal measure, this is the human condition set to music.” CLASH
“Smart Flesh” is a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music’s frayed edges add emotional weight, not who-cares credibility.” LA TIMES
“…far more cohesive than Charlie Darwin, one that’s full of echoes, hushed vocals and stripped-down beauty.” PASTE MAGAZINE
“the kind of stylistic and atmospheric unity that reminds one of what albums can offer that no other format can match.” THE INDEPENDENT
“The sounds on Smart Flesh may be muted, but there is power and daring in its pursuit of stillness. File under: a quiet Storm.” UNCUT
“The record is the opposite of the usual sophomore outing from a band that now has the backing of a label. Instead of bringing more polish and guile, it is full of hisses and noises framing close harmonies and spare, idiosyncratic instrumentation, with a pervasive sense of elegy.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
Last year The Low Anthem released Smart Flesh, the follow-up to their critically-lauded breakthrough album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. The majority of the 11 tracks on Smart Flesh were recorded in a cavernous and long-vacant pasta sauce factory in Central Falls, Rhode Island, with additional tracking in a former reptile breeder’s garage which they nicknamed “the gator pit.” The album was mixed by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Monsters Of Folk) with additional mixing by Jesse Lauter, who also engineered much of the album. The Low Anthem are four multi-instrumentalists: Ben Knox Miller, also the primary vocalist, Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams, and newest member Mat Davidson.
The band surveyed dozens of spaces for their portable recording studio: “We knew right away when we stepped into the factory that the space was really the main instrument for the whole record” says Miller. “The resonance was chilling. We were able to experiment with new recording techniques to capture the sound at different distances. Mics 100-200 feet away caught the sound barrelling across the room.” The Low Anthem is fascinated with tone and timbre. The eclectic array of instruments used on “Smart Flesh” include jaw harp, musical saw, stylophone, three antique pump organs (restored by the band) oversized drum kits, and an elaborate scheme to re-amp noise through various chambers of the factory.
Paranormal hitchhikers, taught highwires, aircraft, swelling tumours, whirring machinery, deserted highways, mannequins, cremation and formaldehyde make up the language of “Smart Flesh” – love, longing and vain contortions before death it’s themes.