The Slow Life - Be Not Afraid (2009)

Genre : Indie,Rock,Ambient,Post-Rock,Slowcore,Experimental
Myspace
Tracklist

01. Key
02. I Can, You Will
03. Outlines
04. Pitchfork
05. Anything - 1 & 2
06. Home
07. When You Carry A Hammer
08. Day For Night
09. Everso
10. The Hunter Street Drift
11. Levity

The Slow Life are : Crawford Blair - original member of Rothko, on bass, keys and drones, Darren Bancroft, voice and lyrics, Ben Jones on drums and acoustic guitar and Dan Baker, on guitar, keys and drones.

Dedicated to distilling maximum beauty from Drums, Guitars, Voice and the occasional laptop flourish, they are influenced by and take references from the likes of Codeine, Sigur Ros, Talk Talk, Low, Bark Psychosis and Swans. The group build their sound slowly and carefully, as only they know how. Darren Bancroft’s wonderful, plaintive voice pins down the music, occasionally breaking free to drift off into the ether. The Slow Life create and build a lexicon of beautiful near-silences, scorched earth string samples, unearthly drones/howls and suspended, reverberating guitar. A beautiful and inspiring addition to the Trace roster. .

Quote:
"So what do The Slow Life sound like? They're giving you hints with the name - at first it seems that slowcore isn't an unreasonable term to bandy about here, although you'll hear plenty more going on in the fabric of these songs. Talk Talk have clearly made an impact on this band, particularly when it comes to the relationship between vocals and the instrumental tapestry beneath. 'Outlines' is a fine and lavish thing, luxuriating at a snail's pace of a tempo and earning each and every languid bar. In addition to the sultry, orchestrally bolstered songs on offer here you'll also encounter some marvellous abstract soundscapes, such as the rainy, windscreen wiper rhythmic to and fro of 'The Hunter St. Drift'. Unrelentingly lovely, and limited to just 600 copies... "- Boomkat Review

"A year and a half may be a long time to make any album but when it sounds this good it is very much worth it. Your new favourite band will be called 'The Slow Life' and the album that will struggle to find its way out of your music player of choice is called 'Be Not Afraid.' Delightfully light in places but with an underlying melancholy that pulls at heart strings as much as it teases the grey matter with entertaining melodies it will have your ears thanking you for such a treat. Darren Bancroft's vocals are soulfully adapted to the lo-fi movements that the band seems to have their expertise within. To pick a winner from this album is done so at a push and not without real consideration but 'When You Carry A Hammer' is a real upbeat change of tact in the album and a melody that has stuck with me all day. Brilliant." - Subba Cultcha Magazine.