aaamusic | On 09, Apr 2012

New Manc band The Slow Show, following their last year critically successful EP Midnight Waltz, burst on this fertile beginning of 2012 with a warm, gentle and poetic EP titled Brother.
Melodies and vocals walk our minds to the smokey lands of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and, mostly, The National. Might be just a coincidence that their name is the same as The National song.
The music. It’s the intense colour of a single malt, the dusty long roads that cross America, at night.
God Only Knows is not a cover song. It’s indeed a beautiful slow song in a delicate and simple frame of a jazzy rhythmic and fine orchestration, where the deep rich voice of lead singer Rob Goodwin elevates creating a sophisticated enchanting atmosphere.
On the same path, the title track Brother suggests unfading memories, portraits made of the emotional string arrangement and a even deer and touching vocal.
A slightly faster percussion movement open the third moment, Dirty Little Secret. Notwithstanding the similarity to something heard already (somewhere in The National discography), this is my favorite composition. The gloomy antipathetic start |No, No I never said so| merges a few frames later into the chorus where the female vocals |Dirty Little Secret| meet with the enriched sound completing a breathtaking crescendo.
Goodbye Rose is the last song, another late night song that sinks into a mood of sadness.
The Slow Show’s career began with their successful appearance at Radio 2 In Session show supporting Elbow at Manchester Cathedral last 27 October 2011. Fast rising bands always scare me, considering they haven’t released a full-length album yet.
Waiting for their debut LP, we can be content of playing in loop the four tracks of Brother, well, if in the right mood.

★★★★★

Pietro Nastasi