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On their third album, Welsh duo, The Lowland Hundred, complete their trilogy of spacious anthems with an astounding work that blends ambient sound with music concrete and pop sensibility.
Through four sprawling untitled tracks, The Lowland Hundred explores the faded shades of memories, ghosts among ruins, the ethereal presence of the past. Sonic drones merge with found sound, electronics, piano and guitar, creating dense, visceral soundscapes gently blanketed by fog, Lou Reed‘s “Berlin” (the song, not the album) as a series of eight to twelve-minute suites composed by Edgard Varèse. Throughout, Paul Newland‘s soulful vocals waft out of the shadows, a softer Tim Buckley with echoes of David Bowie and the older, matured Peter Gabriel, perfectly complimenting the sounds created with Tim Noble. The result recalls the quieter songs from Scott Walker‘s Tilt: somber, mournful, but filled with an energetic intensity not usually found in such works.
Obviously, The Lowland Hundred won’t break the Billboard Top 40 with such challenging music, but that was never the point. These pieces reach emotional boundaries rarely felt in music, and this alone is the raison d‘être. Prepare to question all preconceptions of song, understand melody in a whole new spectrum and actually feel the power of aural beauty for a change.
