Bowery Electric - Beat [CD]

Kranky

£18.34

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: KRANK014
Barcode: 0796441801428
Release Date: 15 Sep 2023
Genre: Post-Rock/Trip-Hop/Dream-Pop

2023 REPRESS OF LONG OUT OF PRINT CD…

The second album from New York City's Bowery Electric was released in late 1996, less than 15 months ayer their self[tled debut, but it found them having traveled light years musically in the interim, the group having seemingly decided to see how far they could take the guitar/ bass / drums / vocal setup into the atmosphere.

Every aspect of their approach had been refined and focused: squalling, distorted guitars had been transformed into hazy, sensual sheets; the live drums transmuted to sampled rhythms more in debt to the blossoming downtempo sound of the day; bass lines reduced to their most basic diagrams; vocals submerged to become one with the narco[zed fog of the instruments; even the lyrics were reduced to a few minimal lines used sparingly so as not to overshadow the dynamic.

Beat is a lush and dense mantra of shadowy percussion, barely-there vocals and immersive drones that envelops the listener in an opiated blanket of sound. Includes the bonus track "Low Density," not featured on the original U.S. release.
"Bowery Electric have made something u`erly astonishing here. So deep, so wide, and somehow as in[mate as a train crash. The first six tracks are just the most crushingly beau[ful thing I've heard in 1997; the last five are even be`er. Good god, THIS IS IT." Melody Maker

"While cymbals shower down over the songs like a torrent of sha`ered glass, their austere beauty is never sta[c. Ambience has rarely sounded so messy." Exclaim

A near-perfect mix of shiying dance beats, menacing electronic drones, analogue bleeps, syncopated rhythms and ethereal vocals." Now UK

Track lis[ng:
1. Beat 2. Empty Words 3. Without Stopping 4 Under the Sun 5 Fear of Flying 6 Looped 7. Black Light 8 Inside Out 9. Coming Down 10. Postscript 11. Low Density* 12 Postscript *bonus track not on original U.S. release