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In
doom and drone, it is not what you don’t play that makes
the difference, but what you do. If the sub-genre is
minimal, it is for a reason. All the space is taken by
such fat sounds anyway. Therefore, the notes that make
the song must be right. Each should strike the right
tone, caress the right chord and carry a load that’s
quite heavy. Hence what you don’t play is still
relevant. As relevant as what you play anyway. That’s
something that Dutch trio Toner Low must learn, as this
second-full-length, though focused on its core mammoth
sounds, lacks poignancy from every possible angle.
And Toner
Low does try. They have added a quotient of psychedelia to give
their songs depth and make the sounds more fluid and layered. As
a result, the songs segue into each other in quite the seamless
fashion. However, structure-wise, the riffs that shape the tunes
and that ultimately move the doom and the drone sound utterly
generic. They are boring. Lack imagination and feeling and seem
to represent and evoke nothing. The one that shapes the first
half of the second track “II” for instance; it’s not only the
most unimaginative guitar playing I have heard in a long time
but it has zero dynamics. It’s just a strum. All of course,
moves at a crawl-pace and when winds catch up midway through
this fourteen-minute composition, one would be wrong to think of
a cool cat like Coltrane. Mmmmmh, it’s more like Kenny G did a
cameo.
I think this
trio believes that simplicity is the key to good songs.
Sometimes it is, but no in their case. Toner Low certainly
exploit their riffs for all that they are worth. The shortest
song clocks at over 13 minutes, that’s a long time when you
notice how much music there actually is. Repetition works
sometimes, but for Toner Low, it’s like suicide. “III” exploits
this one beat until it literally, drives you insane with its
monotony. If their moniker is to be interpreted in some literal
way, I’d say; get a new cartridge god damn it!
Official Site
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