pre order
repress due Release Date:1 Oct 2017
Beat
Artist Bowery Electric
Format:Vinyl / 12" Album
Label:Kranky Records
Catalogue No:KRANK014
Barcode:0796441801411
Genre:Rock/Pop
No of Discs:2
Release Date:1 Oct 2017
Weight:460g
Dimensions:316 x 9 x 312 (mm)
Track Listings
Disc 1
1Beat
2Empty Words
3Without Stopping
4Under the Sun
5Fear of Flying
6Looped
7Black Light
Disc 2
1Inside Out
2Coming Down
3Postscript
4Low Density
5Postscript
The second album from New York City's Bowery Electric was released in late 1996, less than 15 months after their self-titled 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 narcotized 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 utterly astonishing here. So deep, so wide, and somehow as intimate as a train crash. The first six tracks are just the most crushingly beautiful thing I've heard in 1997; the last five are even better. Good god, THIS IS IT." Melody Maker
"While cymbals shower down over the songs like a torrent of shattered glass, their austere beauty is never static. Ambience has rarely sounded so messy." Exclaim
A near-perfect mix of shifting dance beats, menacing electronic drones, analogue bleeps,
syncopated rhythms and ethereal vocals." Now UK
