Slowness – Berths LP (Schoolkids Records)

There’s something about shoegaze and dream pop music that keeps me entertained for countless hours. Sometimes I could go throughout the entire weekend by listening to these particular genres and clearing my head of the mess caused during the working week. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Slowness, a tremendous band from San Francisco, who’s performing such a unique blend that includes those beforementioned genres, plus some other delightful ingredients along the way. Since their formation, Slowness managed to release an impressive amount of recordings during the past decade or so, such as a self-titled full-length debut, Hopeless But Otherwise EP, a split 7″ release with Dead Leaf Echo, For Those Who Wish To See The Glass Half Full LP, How To Keep From Falling Off A Mountain LP, Berths LP and Part-Time Punks EP. Today, I will talk a little bit more about Berths LP thanks to Schoolkids Records.

Berths LP represents the fourth full-length recording by Slowness that includes six longevous compositions, so the entire material exceeds about thirty minutes in length. As I stated before, Slowness somehow managed to reach the sweet spot between shoegaze and dream pop but also incorporate other suitable genres into their profoundly calmy music. Besides the dominant presence of shoegaze and dream pop, you may stumble upon additional components, such as alternative, indie rock, indie pop, and drone music. However, these elements are enhancing the appearance of those two main ingredients, which are present from scratch to finish. Slowness are remaining devoted to their initial style, so their compositions are calm and slow, just as their name suggests in the first place. Besides continuous calmness and slowness, the group keeps their numbers psychedelic, hypnotic, catchy as much as possible.

The group achieved these psychedelic aesthetics through powerful themes performed over guitars. The additional layers of reverb, echo, and delay are giving that cathartic, atmospheric, divine vibe to the entire material. Perhaps there’s even more studio reverb added to the mix to spice up these orchestrations with some additional ambiance, but it’s not overwhelming the remaining portion of the instruments. Besides the repetitious chord progressions and polyphonic themes, calmy lead vocals are mainly responsible for the hypnotic feel of this recording. Both elements are pleasing listening apparatus, while the stable rhythm section keeps everything in line with moderate tempos. You may also stumble upon some ambient/drone segments lurking around in the very background, which are decorating this material even more.

Slowness thought about every segment of their fourth full-length, and you’ll enjoy this material from scratch to finish if you’re profoundly into psychedelic shoegaze and dream pop music. Berths LP comes on a heavy 180gr vinyl record, housed in a high-quality record sleeve. Head over to Schoolkids Records for more details about ordering this gem.