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Music

Lowtide – Lowtide

The film clip ends. David gives his review and other thoughts, and then turns to the person to his left. “Thoughts, Margaret?” Margaret looks at David, then at the camera, and back at David again, searching for help. Grimace consumes her face, her teeth are clenched and her heart groans.

Margaret Pomeranz is about to review a shit Australian movie. The review will be prefaced by a statement like “I don’t really want to have to do this, David” or “I want to support the Australian film industry wherever I can”. You see Dear Reader, that’s how I feel about introducing identikit shoegazers Lowtide.

lowtide band

Shoegaze – love it or leave it. Lowtide’s debut self titled record suggests that maybe we should all leave the genre be for a while…

I probably should admit I’m not the biggest fan of shoegaze, or sister genres like psychedelia either. I remember when I saw Tame Impala a few years ago with my friends; I had to put on a brave face as all my mates were jumping around. Maybe it’s because I don’t smoke pot or drop acid. I dunno. If you want, you could dismiss my opinion straight away.

The weird thing, though, is that I don’t dislike atmospheric music. I enjoy artists like Palms (not Palms), Thomas Köner, and Fuck Buttons. I also don’t mind instrumental bands, who also lack common song structure. These three named artists do, however, clearly display intention in their music; imitating old genres doesn’t count.

Lowtide, on the other hand, seems to want to be another reproduction of shoegaze. On their newly released self-titled LP, that’s what you’ll mainly find. Every now and again, you can hear something in the ethereal distance that sounds like the drummer or bass player has control over what their instrument, but it feels to me like all their songwriting ideas have been ignored.

There are also a few bits and pieces without dreary vocals and atmospheric whistling. In the song Maxillæ Leaving, Seaward, for example, the mood and the guitars are allowed to drift, unattached to the dreary vocals. Unsurprisingly, this results in a nice, soothing song, probably the best of the album.

All up, I really want you to do well Lowtide, as you’re a local Aussie band. But listening to you pains me a bit.

The Melburnians are on a 4-city tour (sorry Perth, you’ve been ignored again. But I guess you’re used to that) promoting their Lowtide LP. If you really love shoegaze, go see them, you’ll have a whale of a time! If you don’t, well… not so much.*

TOUR DATES

Friday 25 July: The Tote, Melbourne

Saturday 2 August: The Metro, Adelaide

Friday 8 August: Roller Den, Sydney

(Brisbane TBA)

*For the record, editorial loves this album – this article brings up some great points about modern psych/shoegaze and is a lot better than another white bread puff piece from an author who didn’t know what shoegaze was.

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