Steffen Lundtoft of Lowly told us about his love for a Low riff (appropriately enough).
Steffen Lundtoft: The beat that blew my mind isn't really a beat. It's the earthquake on "Quorum" from Low's 2018 album Double Negative, produced by BJ Burton: A pulsating wave of noise, inducing a simple yet very trancending rhythmic pattern, emphasized by the lack of an actual drum.
To me it sounds like someone's pulse, breath or a blood stream maybe, eerily distorted into a massive wave of beautiful granular noise, sidechaining everything in the track, even the lead vocals, to follow its pace and become part of one simple, but very captivating movement.
I remember being completely sucked into this track from the first second. Give it a listen and feel what happens in your body when the silence hits at 01:50. This absolutely amazing production makes both the bouldering noise and the alluring silence feel equally overwhelming.
It reminds me, as both a drummer and producer, how powerful a beat can be without the slightest presence of a drum. Also it just makes me so happy that a band has the courage to collaborate with new people and change their sound so drastically on their 12th (!) studio album. I'm forever grateful for the inspiration given to us all by bands like Low and especially the late Mimi Parker, may she rest in peace.
Lowly's Softy album is out October 30.
Photo by Herup Mørck
