Sub Pop US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Minnesota couple Low have been around the block, lets say roughly 25 times, and it's been the Seattle-based Sub Pop label that's really become home to their music after several drops for the ambient-laced Kranky. I mean, hey, some have even called their music 'dinner party epochal'. Static and noise and other more experimental techniques in production provide a livid colour to this album, take in "Dancing in Blood" for example, with its industrial and subdued goth influences, or the pumping white noise and distortion of album opener "Quorum". Further down the tracklist is "Fly", a naturally melancholic number but far from depressive, with this track in particular hitting a sweet spot in the same way Massive Attack's "Teardrop" does. Very cool LP.

Review: Summer is drawing to a close, so what better time to avail ourselves of the eleventh record by these masters of melancholia. Low's back catalogue has proven them to be a band possessed of a consistency to match their emotional heft, and Ones & Sixes is no exception quality-wise - the band dispenses indelible and satisfyingly chilly ditties which balance out exquisite harmonies, fetching songcraft and understated charm, whilst also offering curveballs redolent of a band whose less-is-more aesthetic doesn't preclude an experimental slant - the electronic textures around the album's edge and the surprisingly poppy 'What Part Of Me' being cases in point.

Review: The Postal Service is made up of Ben Gibbard, who is of course the singer and guitarist from Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello, who also records as Dntel. They work over long distances and in 2003 dropped their classic album Give Up, which was then reissued and remastered for a 10th-anniversary edition and now comes on special blue and silver vinyl as a 20th-anniversary looms. The album is sweet and charming and mostly electronic with real warmth and some additional vocals from Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis.

Review: Natalie Mering's Weyes Blood project is 12 years deep now, and she follows up on 2019's Titanic Rising with this, her fourth studio album. Her sound evolves in kind over this time from the DIY roots of her appearances on Not Not Fun et al, and now she strikes the figure of an eternal songstress joining the dots from classic 70s composition and production through to the aching, head-fogged reflection of the modern condition. Lead single 'It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody' nails the mood of malaise, but the beauty of her songwriting leads and saves us from slipping into despair. Why not commit to the concept and cop this, the limited Loser Edition of And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow.