Vivid Low Sky
II
Reviewed by: Geno Thackara
Some odd people, I’ve heard, like to mute the TV at home and just have the images in the background without any sound; for others it’s maybe more fun sometimes to play Mystery Science Theater 3000 and add your own commentary. Once upon a time, David Koslowski went a step further and decided to pick up a guitar to make his own soundtrack for something he was watching. Next he picked an evocative band name and brought in some friends to help make more wordless soundtracks with him. Vivid Low Sky isn’t his main outlet – it’s now almost two decades old and this is only their second album – but it’s been steadily simmering on the back burner among those other things. It seems this latest batch of pieces was partly a way of helping him and his family through some pretty rough times.
I’m not sure how much I would have guessed at that history just from listening to II on its own. It isn’t cinematic in the sense the word usually means when referring to music – it’s not full of big sweeps that suggest picturesque landscapes or things like that. This is more the sound of four good friends simply jamming in the basement. The tracks are largely based around easygoing guitar patterns and hummable melodies with a steady beat to move them. It often feels like an alt-rock band’s demo tape where they haven’t gotten around to adding the words yet. Sometimes it makes perfect sense as it is, while at other times it feels like there’s still a little piece of the puzzle waiting to be added. I don’t mean that as a bad thing – part of the fun is the chance to let your own imagination fill in the rest.
This stuff will be a great fit for bumper music on TV and radio programs. It’s certainly thoughtful, but nowhere near as emotive or downbeat as you might expect from reading about those rough times (dealing with health problems and the deaths of parents, for instance). Even the sadder moments, such as the sweet wavy guitar sustains of “Mr. Shivers Is Sleeping,” still come out feeling more peaceful than anything else. It’s almost what you might hear from a stripped-down Godspeed You! Black Emperor if they decided to stop morbidly dwelling on the end of the world, mellow out with wine and enjoy a cozy night by the fire instead. II has a familiar feeling easy for anyone to listen to: a warmly inviting space for stray ideas in search of a home.
Rating: Listenable
