-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Slow Crush ALBUM...: Hush GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Shoegaze, Dreampop, Indie Rock, Post-Punk STYLE...: Alternative, Grunge, Post-Metal, Post-Rock YEAR....: 2021 LABEL...: Church Road COUNTRY.: Belgium PLACE...: Leuven, Flanders, Vlaams-Brabant ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 250 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 10 SIZE....: 82.14 MB URL..: http://www.slowcrush.org - TRACKLIST 1 Drown 3:23 2 Blue 4:07 3 Swoon 2:28 4 Gloom 3:04 5 Swivel 5:06 6 RΩve 6:10 7 Hush 6:29 8 Lull 6:39 9 Thrill 5:02 10 Bent And Broken 3:14 Total Playtime: 45:42 A compelling abrasive shoegaze band, dealing with the aesthetics of contrasting sounds. Heavy like a gloomy dream yet soothingly vibrant. The vulnerable soft floating voice of Manchester's Isa Holliday underneath layers of grungy shoegaze soaked noisepop, seeking shelter from a fed up world. * Belgium based Slow Crush has been crafting their own take on shoegaze and dream pop since 2016, with their 2018 full-length Aurora generating quite a bit of buzz. Like many of their peers, Slow Crush retained a healthy dose of crushing feedback and fuzz but had some actual substance behind it, capturing equal amounts of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Mazzy Star without coming off as derivative. For their follow-up Hush some three years later, the band has written material that feels appropriate for the album title, exploring softer, subdued textures and bringing in some additional elements of other alternative rock sub-genres and post rock. It's a bit less immediate than its predecessor in some ways, yet just as fulfilling for those who want to drift off in the shimmering melodies and warmer textures. Hush may not be drastically changing anything you'd expect from shoegaze adjacent music, but Slow Crush is starting to naturally push outwards in ways that make them a bit less like every other modern act in the genre. Tracks like "Blue" still recall the driving tempos and wall of distortion that formed as the foundation for much of Aurora, but the bulk of the material instead emphasizes softer, warmer textures this time around. The instrumentals are slower and methodical, letting the layers expand and build in ways that are sometimes more reminiscent of post rock's climactic approach to song writing, and it's this showing of restraint that goes a long way. Where so many other bands in this genre have focused on establishing entrancing atmosphere through walls upon walls of noisy guitar and brisk tempos, Slow Crush utilizes it when necessary and takes some time to get there, providing plenty of smaller details for listeners to explore. Some additional listens are necessary to fully get a feel for everything, making Hush a bit less immediate than Aurora, yet after that second or third listen I started to find a lot of these dreamier textures lingering in my memory afterwards. Slow Crush still channels a lot of Slowdive, but I also find myself thinking of some of PJ Harvey's softer, vulnerable sounding moments alongside Explosions in the Sky. It's a compelling mixture, and while the one flaw that stands out upon repeat listens is the length of some of the tracks (the three six-minute pieces towards the end of the album feel a bit overstretched), those warmer, shimmering tones keep drawing me back. The vocals are where even more of the Slowdive influence comes into play, as Isa Holliday has a similar ethereal tone for much of Hush. While her voice remains a little buried underneath some of the louder moments, the restrained passages on songs like "ROve" allows her singing to become the focus, showcasing somber beauty as each word echoes over the recording. There are backing ranges that come into play that create some stunning harmonized passages, and it's closer "Bent and Broken" that brings the most Slowdive to mind thanks to the lushness of the harmonies. Slow Crush seems more confident in their singing abilities for album number two, and their decision to emphasize the vocals a bit more rather than burying them in the mix was a good one. Slow Crush has built upon their already strong foundation for their sophomore full length, incorporating additional post and alternative rock elements while also giving their vocals more breathing room. It may take a bit of time to sink in, but their restrained pauses and dynamic build-ups offer a genuinely engaging take on shoegaze that is worthy of your attention. There are still a lot of bands trying to come up with modern takes on this sound, but Slow Crush is starting to move up towards the top with each album. * As the nights draw in and temperatures dip, Belgian quartet Slow Crush have picked a perfect time to return. There's an autumnal chill present in the stately sonics of new album Hush, with shimmering guitar figures as crisp as frost underfoot. An elemental darkness is ever-present, but the lambent beauty of these songs will offer comfort and hope in the longest of winters. Thrill's tranquil glimmer and the echoing fragility of Gloom place Slow Crush as successors to ethereal legends Cocteau Twins, while elsewhere there are definite nods to the likes of Slowdive, early Lush and The Cure circa Disintegration. While never quite as full-on as kindred spirits NOTHING, rockier instincts do assert themselves amidst the shoegaze and dream-pop, whether via the faster, almost punky tempo of Swoon or abrasive moments like the conclusion to Bent And Broken, incidentally the only tune here with a title longer than one word. A key unifying constant is the elegant vocal style of bassist Isa Holliday, a warm and wistful presence cocooned within the warm embrace of Hush's soundworld. The dreamy waltz of ROve finds the band at their most tender, while Hush's title-track moves through different dynamics over six-and-a-half minutes, taking in delicate melody, walloping gloom-rock and sombre serenity, challenging the idea that Slow Crush might be one-trick ponies. Admittedly, there aren't many hooks here that stick in your mind once the album stops playing, but that isn't really the point: this music is about the atmosphere it creates, lulling the listener into a blissful trance state, and that experience is what persists in the memory. The flickering flames of this album are as engulfing as any raging inferno. * a beautiful dream. Sure, it's a tired exhausted drowsy cliche when it comes to analysing shoegaze music, but the concept of a sleep-induced audiovisual experience does happen to be the most comprehensive metaphor to describe Hush. The sophomore album by BritBelgian reverb-masters Slow Crush is a gorgeously calm work of art, gently revealing its subtleties while distorting each sparkling corner into new, deeply inviting sonic avenues. While we're indulging ourselves in alluring genre tropes, it's safe to say that Hush is a walking, drifting, gazing collection of such cliches. Song titles range from the floaty 'Lull' to the Very floaty 'Swivel'; levels of fuzz range from high to Very high. Opening cut 'Drown' instantly presents an immersive experience with subtle aural manipulations, before Isa Holliday's vocals transform the ambient-heavy song's tail end into Slow Crush's delightfully abrasive take on shoegaze on subsequent tracks. Where the band's previous works frequently focused on combining energetic rhythms with gleaming textures, Hush opts to lean on the slow, composed and illusory throughout most of its runtime. Even 'Swoon', the fast-paced exception to this rule, is introduced by a highly abstract 30-second collision of drums and distortion before embracing its delightful punkgaze aesthetics to the fullest. Every moment is drenched in such introspective beauty that Hush can feel a tad homogenous at times. Yet, the wonderful nuances prevalent throughout the record shape different personalities for each song, with such uniquities blurring and intersecting throughout. 'Swivel' finds its footing in a haunting wave of distortion complemented by a highly effective interplay of reverb-drenched riffs, with Holliday's voice cutting through the static in a rare moment of vocal clarity: "I only feel what you want me to feel". It's such instances that paint the album's sentimental aura; the persistently lingering sonic wave connotes tangible sensations of deep longing. The record's title track and immediate highlight characterises this like none other. 'Hush' comprises a driving affair of crashing cymbals and dense interplay between guitar and bass, simultaneously disintegrating and reinventing itself multiple times throughout its six minutes. The song configures its intensities in a unique manner, allowing just enough ambience in between beautifully abrasive moments for the fragile atmosphere to compose itself. Ultimately, Hush has a wonderful mind of its own in spite of being highly familiar. It's an album that knows its strengths and chooses to glide with them, making for an expansive, deeply calming listen. It's the type of experience that forms an antidote to the unpleasant and stressful, with its persistent gleaming distortions allowing for seemingly infinite loops. * Three years after their hugely successful and acclaimed debut album Aurora, the dreamy Belgian based quartet return with a tweaked line up and a more intricate, richer sound to deliver one of the most beautiful albums of the year. Like many bands during the pandemic, Slow Crush found their tour schedules constantly cancelled and rearranged, and used this unprecedented downtime to compose new material, resulting in Hush, an album that is more introspective, intricate and at times gloomier affair than their debut. All the elements that made Aurora magical are present on Hush, but this time everything feels dialled up a notch; the band's sound now cinematic in scope and the intimate moments achingly more tangible. Throughout the record, Isa Holliday's wistful croon moves effortlessly through the warm walls of guitar, propelled by her own, understated bass lines, like on the gorgeous, aptly-titled 'Gloom', where The Cure-like guitar lines of Jelle Harde Ronsman echo out, blissfully bolstering Holliday's gentle, dreamlike vocals. Similarly, the melancholic, wintery 'Reve' unfolds gently into a ghostly ballad, peppered by some wonderfully sensitive drum work from newcomer Frederik Meeuwis, his patterns pairing exquisitely with Holliday's expressive bass playing and the track's expansive feel. Indeed, the fleeting surge of 'Swoon' aside, the emotional gut punches on Hush lie in its slower, more tender moments, of which there are plenty, such as the melancholic, swaying balladary of 'Lull', the Sigur R=s recalling melodies of opener 'Drown' and the spacey, sorrowful sounds of 'Thrill'. The leaps Slow Crush have made in terms of songwriting and execution from Aurora to Hush are huge; whilst the former is without doubt a wonderful album in its own right, it's quite clear now just how much that was a mere taste of what was to come. There's an emotional heft to these tracks that is unlike anything they've recorded before; the band have transcended their shoegaze label and produced an album of profoundly moving songs. * Despite the violence implied by their name, Belgian outfit SLOW CRUSH are often anything but. Their debut Aurora showcased a knack for turbulence tempered by graceful moments, and their second album, Hush, looks to build on such a promising foundation and continue to evolve their sound. Written between tours and finalised during the lockdowns of 2020-1, it's the sound of a band expanding their sonic palette without straying too far from the path they set themselves on with Aurora. Hush is in every way a step up from the already-excellent Aurora; its shimmering melodies are counterpointed by elements of noise and hardcore slotted seamlessly together. They're the epitome of shoegaze, and that's certainly no bad thing as they take the best elements and add in parts all their own. Driven by emotion, romanticism and escapism, Hush is a captivating listen from start to finish and sees SLOW CRUSH deservedly take their place as one of the finest bands the genre has to offer. * Three years ago I was writing for a site called Punk Rock Theory. The owner was a man named Tom based out of Belgium. Knowing that I had an almost indiscriminate affinity for anything shoegaze, he sent me an album from an up-and-coming Belgian band. The album was Aurora from the then-unknown (stateside, at least) shoegaze outfit Slow Crush. I was impressed with the advance I received and preordered it on vinyl. That proved to be a wise move for me, because once the album was released, it gained so much hype that it became impossible to find a copy for a reasonable price-even with a steady stream of represses, which were all sold out within minutes. And rightly so. Aurora captured everything that the throngs of shoegaze revivalists tried to create without shamelessly pulling pages from the Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine guidebooks to shoegaze. Even now, Aurora remains in constant rotation in my record collection. So its follow up Hush comes with impossibly high expectations. And while I won't spend too much time trying to compare the two albums, Hush is largely successful because it sidesteps these expectations instead of trying to meet them. This is clearly the same band: the ethereal guitar tones and transcendent vocals are still here, often accompanied by a driving rhythm section. But Slow Crush isn't trying to recreate the formula that made Aurora a breakthrough hit. Instead, the album feels incredibly at ease. The band knows their voice and is content to let that voice speak for itself without quenching it under the weight of ambition. Many of the tracks are subdued and intimate, leaning more into soundscape and balladry than pushing into what might pump up numbers on Spotify playlists. In fact, the album sometimes feels antithetical to the streaming ethos: song lengths regularly stretch past the six-minute mark, often bleeding into the track afterward, making for a frustrating and unrewarding listen out of context. There aren't any obvious singles here. Even the shortest tracks eschew catchy hooks in favor of amorphous soundscapes. And let me be perfectly clear: that's why this album is so good. Slow Crush very easily could have written another album of shoegazing pop songs carefully crafted for streaming algorithms and baiting bloggers. Instead, Hush forces the listener to engage on the band's own terms. It's not an album for passive, cherry-picked listening. Rather, it's the kind of album that should be listened to all at once, preferably loudly, and maybe even in the dark. Only then will the full beauty of the record unfold itself. It might require a lot from the listener, but it rewards that devotion with blessings beyond measure. One last thing: I would be remiss if I didn't give special mention to the guitar tones on this record. Slow Crush famously designed their own fuzz pedal for Aurora, which they often sell-and quickly sell out of-on their Bandcamp page. These are the kinds of guitar tones that gear geeks dream of. Any pedal nerd on GuitarTok or Instagram wishes they could create clips with half the tone of this album. But great tone itself doesn't make for great music. Spend fifteen minutes scrolling these corners of the internet, and you'll realize how monotonous shoegaze can get when it's used as an excuse to demo the most expensive pedals money can buy. Slow Crush knows this, and even as gorgeous as the guitar tones are-and they are stunning-they're never the main attraction. That tone is just one flavor in the five-star meal that is Hush. -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---