Review Summary: shh, dream on
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. As such, it can be said that Slow Crush have crafted nothing short of
