November 7th sees the release of The Lowland Hundred’s second album, Adit.
The Lowland Hundred’s debut album from summer 2010, Under Cumbrian Sky, was a slow motion love affair with the heart and a slow burn critical hit too – esteemed music journal, Mojo, awarded it Disc of the Day back in January 2011. While Uncut have just given the album 4 stars saying; “This is visionary and deeply poignant music”.
This is an album about people in a landscape. People past and present. People near at hand and people far away. People in love. People at peace. People in great danger. People once remembered, people now forgotten. People moving through streets, people trapped in relationships. People unsure of who they once were or who they might one day become.
While The Lowland Hundred’s debut album, Under Cambrian Sky, evoked a landscape just beyond the everyday, Adit transports the listener to a markedly psychological space, where the rules that govern our everyday lives have little or no relevance. Perception breaks down, reality collapses in on itself; a mile is as an inch, whole decades are crossed in seconds.
Blending haunting vocals with seething atmospherics, their music has prompted comparison to Robert Wyatt, Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk, the weather beaten, tender laments of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, the Scott Walker of Tilt and The Drift and the delectable melancholia of Liam Hayes a.k.a Plush.
The Lowland Hundred’s immersive soundworld is often compared to those inhabited by the so-called hauntologists. While it is true that their music is rooted in psychogeography, the never-tangible and the uncanny, The Lowland Hundred don’t rely on the kitsch tropes oft associated with that genre and evoke a richer, more profound aural environment. Adit is no exception to this.
Biography –
Brought together by blind chance and a shared fascination with the British seaside, Paul Newland and Tim Noble formed The Lowland Hundred in Aberystwyth, Wales, in late 2008.
Cult indie label Victory Garden Records (Hot Chip, Roy Montgomery, Hey Colossus) released The Lowland Hundred’s debut album, Under Cambrian Sky, in June 2010.
The album received a number of excellent reviews from the likes of the Quietus and The Line of Best Fit. It was awarded Disc of The Day by Mojo in January 2011.
The band made their live debut at the Green Man festival in 2010 and they went on to play a number of radio sessions for stations as varied as Resonance FM and BBC Radio Wales.
The band continue to play the occasional live show. In late 2011 they will start work on their third album, which will be released by Hundred Acre.
Artist Links:
http://www.lowlandhundred.com
http://www.facebook.com/lowlandhundred
