S.Q.E.

The Abyss Stares Back by S.Q.E. is a sonic playground of ghostly apocalyptic
ambient compositions.  There are also a few contemeplative drum and
bass arrangements led by beautiful female vocals (the piece titled Cat
is a nice example).  There is something very tragically mythic
about this music.  It could be the soundtrack to a stage
production of a work by Aeschylus or William Blake (in fact, one of the
tracks is titled Daughters of Albion Awake which must be a reference
to the poem by Blake).  Lots of theatric synthesized textures are
subtly layered creating a unique aural experience.  At times the
drama is broken by operatic singing and at times by haunting
synthesized tones that sweep and grow with intensity.  This is a
serious work that demands the listeners attention. 

I grew up listening to Brian Eno.  I shunned his ambient music
believing it was some bad midlife crisis he was going through.  It
wasn’t until I hit my 30’s that I started to rediscover the beauty of
those compositions.  S.Q.E. along with contemporary musicians like
Amber Asylum and Rachel’s have taken the audio experience to a new
space.  The compositions are meditative rather than shallow
pop. 

S.Q.E. : Jorinda X
S.Q.E. : Epitaph 2
S.Q.E. : Cat
S.Q.E. : 1974

Low

I’ve been listening to the band LOW
since they released Long Division 10 years ago. It’s hazy spectral
ambience and intensity blew me away. Over the years LOW has gotten less
reverb’d out and more ingenious in their ways of mesmerizing me. I
won’t go into how I felt that Trust was the end of them because here
they are with a new label (sub pop) and a new album.

With the release of The Great Destroyer I feel LOW has reached that
pinnacle of intensity they have been holding back for so long. No more
hints of emotional explosion as they had done in the past, the whole
album implodes into a fiery collection of songs that resonate anger,
sorrow, love and the grey world of hope.

To be honest, the album itself could do without a couple of songs, but
that’s me but with that said I cannot think  of an album more
necessary to get this yearor a band to see perform live.

Low: Monkey
Low: California

review by farhad parsa