搬運(yùn)自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Beans_Beans?

On the follow-up to 2018’s astonishingDouble Negative, Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk push deeper into abstraction,finding fresh angles on the themes that have animated them since the beginning.

18年發(fā)行了令人震驚的《Double Negative》后，Mimi Parker和Alan Sparhawk在新的作品中深入抽象領(lǐng)域，為從一開始就激勵他們的主題尋得新的角度。

Cast away most of what you have, and whatever’sleft will mean that much more. This principle was evident in Low’s music fromthe beginning, when they made records out of mere whispers of guitar andpercussion, and it’s still there 27 years later on HEY WHAT, their 13th album,made in large part of roaring electronic noise. The two human voices at thecenter are a little deeper and rounder at the edges than they used to be, butthey otherwise haven’t changed much. Nor has Low’s attunement to the way thecrackling particularities of any given sound, shorn of excess and beheld withclose attention, can convey feeling beyond words. Once, that meant a crispchord hanging in an empty room. Now, there’s no longer an easy externalreferent for the space their music occupies. HEY WHAT is more like a surge ofinformation through a corroded terminal, or an electrical storm in the cavernbetween two earbuds.

拋棄你所既有的，余下的將愈發(fā)有意義。這個(gè)原則從一開始就在Low的音樂中有所顯現(xiàn)，當(dāng)時(shí)的他們僅僅用吉他和低沉的打擊樂來制作唱片，而27年后這一原則依舊主導(dǎo)著他們的創(chuàng)作，他們的第13張專輯《HEY WHAT》則在很大程度上由咆哮的電子噪音構(gòu)成。處于樂曲軸心位置的二人的聲音比以往更深沉，更圓潤，但除此之外也并無過多的變化。Low對任何特定聲音的爆破性特征的適應(yīng)性調(diào)節(jié)，在剔除了贅余的部分后，我們細(xì)細(xì)觀察會發(fā)現(xiàn)其所傳達(dá)的感情是無法用言語表達(dá)的。曾經(jīng)，這可能是一個(gè)清脆的和弦在一個(gè)空曠的房間中回響?，F(xiàn)在，他們音樂所占據(jù)的空間已經(jīng)很難再去搜尋一個(gè)簡潔形象的比方。《HEY WHAT》更像是一個(gè)穿梭在腐蝕終端的信息潮，或是在兩個(gè)耳塞間的耳道中奔涌的電子風(fēng)暴。

It’s difficult to address HEY WHAT withoutfirst mentioning Double Negative, its predecessor. That album landed with theforce of revelation in 2018, a clear career highlight for a band that’s nevermade a bad album. Working closely with producer BJ Burton, who returns for HEYWHAT, Low remade themselves in the image of a dying supercomputer, digitallymangling their own performances until the distortion was as central to thealbum’s effect as the songs themselves. It was conversant with the vanguards ofelectronic, pop, and hip-hop production, fields that have long since abandonedany fealty to the way sounds are supposed to behave in real-world acoustic environments. Its jagged slabs of bass reminded me, in a surprisingly directway, of the shredded low end of Kanye’s Yeezus, or XXXTentacion’s “Look at Me!”Those records harnessed the unruliness of digital malfunction, made itpalatable and even satisfying by tethering it to familiar forms; a kick-drumsound, no matter how blown out, still generally performed the expected role ofa kick drum. Without undermining the compositions of co-founders Alan Sparhawkand Mimi Parker, Double Negative aspired toward further abstraction, allowingits ashen pixellations to shape the music on their own terms, as gestures untothemselves. It was the closest a rock album has come in recent memory tosounding completely new.

談到《HEY WHAT》、我們很難不先提及它的前身《Double Negative》。那張專輯在2018年的發(fā)行宛如《啟示錄》降臨人世，對于一個(gè)從未制作過辣雞專輯的樂隊(duì)來說，這無疑又是一個(gè)生涯兩點(diǎn)。Low與制作人BJ Burton密切合作，后者選擇以《HEY WHAT》回歸，將Low重塑成一臺瀕死的超級人工智能，用數(shù)字技術(shù)扭曲他們自己的表演，直到失真成為專輯的核心、甚至能與歌曲本身比肩。這張專輯與電子、流行和嘻哈領(lǐng)域的制作先鋒對話，拋棄了真實(shí)世界中實(shí)際聲學(xué)環(huán)境的任何表現(xiàn)形式。它其中參差不齊的厚重低音竟讓我想起了Kanye的《Yeezus》或XXXTentacion的《?Look at Me》中被解構(gòu)的低頻音軌。這些唱片利用了數(shù)字故障的不穩(wěn)定性，通過將其與熟悉的形式聯(lián)系起來，使其變得易于接受，甚至令人欣然；而踢鼓的聲音，無論是如何將之爆發(fā)出來，一般來說仍然扮演著踢鼓的預(yù)期角色。在不破壞Alan Sparhawk和Mimi Parker原本作品的情況下，《Double Negative》追求進(jìn)一步的抽象化，使得《Low》以灰暗的像素化方式塑造音樂成為可能。這是近年來為數(shù)不多的一張有著近乎全新聽感的搖滾專輯。

If Double Negative was a thrilling anduncertain expedition, bringing an alien landscape into focus for the firsttime, HEY WHAT demonstrates Low’s newfound mastery of the terrain. After awhirling free-tempo introduction, opener “White Horses” settles into a clippedstaccato pulse, providing brittle accompaniment for Sparhawk and Parker’sharmonizing about the inevitable cruelty of love. By the second verse, thepulse has grown into something huge and menacing, pushing the singers moreurgently than before. “Days Like These” makes a series of abrupt transitionsbetween crystalline unaccompanied singing and voices that have been crushednearly beyond recognition, drawing up the tension with each hard cut. “It isn’tsomething you can choose between,” Sparhawk and Parker sing, with the firsthalf of the line clean and the second half distorted, a reminder that darknessand light are inseparable. This sort of precisely controlled dramadistinguishes HEY WHAT from Double Negative, as if Low were creating a languagein the dark on the previous album and are now using it to write a high-wirethriller.

如果說《Double Negative》是一次驚心動魄、充滿不確定性的探險(xiǎn)，首次將一個(gè)世外景觀帶入了人們的視線，那么《HEY WHAT》則展示了Low所掌握的全新地形。在一段快節(jié)奏引子結(jié)束后，開唱曲“White Horse”進(jìn)入了一個(gè)斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的節(jié)奏脈沖，為Sparhawk和Parker關(guān)于愛、關(guān)于其避之不及的殘酷宿運(yùn)的和聲提供了在狂暴邊緣的伴奏。到了第二詩節(jié)，節(jié)奏漸漸發(fā)展成巨大而洶涌的存在，相比先前更迫切地促使著著人聲推進(jìn)。“Days Like These”在晶瑩剔透的純?nèi)寺曆堇[和幾乎被擠壓得面目全非的聲音間反復(fù)橫跳，每一個(gè)強(qiáng)硬切片都拉高了這首歌曲的表現(xiàn)張力?！癐t isn’t something you can choose between,” Sparhawk和Parker唱道，前半句清晰簡潔，后半句壓抑扭曲，警醒著世人黑暗和光明總是不可分割的。這種在精確把控下的戲劇效果使《HEY WHAT》區(qū)別于《Double Negative》，就好像Low在前一張專輯中創(chuàng)造了一種黑暗中的語言，如今開始用它寫下一部史詩級驚悚片。

At times, Low seem to tack back toward thetight songcraft of an album like 2005’s The Great Destroyer, directing HEYWHAT’s strange vocabulary toward the same visceral ends that they once reachedwith power chords and cymbal crashes. But the story isn’t so simple. HEY WHATalso maintains and deepens Double Negative’s exploration of sustained ambience,with long stretches devoted to the repetition of a single word, or the slowdecay of a keyboard line. Even moments like these are not exactly unprecedentedfor Low, who were already including passages of quietly hypnotic instrumentalchurn on their debut. Low’s new idiom may have seemed like an aberration onDouble Negative, but HEY WHAT’s refinements make it clear that they are stillfinding fresh angles on the same themes that have animated them since thebeginning: usi?ng minimalism to expressthe entwined pairing of intimacy and loneliness, searching for meaning in therubble after a departure too catastrophic to address by name.

有時(shí)會覺得Low似乎回到了像05年《The Great Destroyer》中緊湊的歌曲制作，將《HEY WHAT》中的奇怪詞匯導(dǎo)向他們曾通過強(qiáng)有力的和弦和鐃鈸的猛烈沖擊所抵達(dá)的相同目標(biāo)。但這個(gè)過程并不那么簡單。《HEY WHAT》還延續(xù)并加深了《Double Negative》對氛圍化的探索，長時(shí)間地重復(fù)同一個(gè)詞、或是減弱下行的鍵盤推進(jìn)。像這樣的時(shí)刻對Low來說并非完全沒有先例，他們的首張專輯中已經(jīng)包含了一些平靜的催眠器樂段落。Low的新習(xí)性在《Double Negative》中可能顯得有些反常，但在《HEY WHAT》中的改進(jìn)清楚地表明，他們?nèi)栽跒閺囊婚_始就激勵他們的主題尋找新的角度——用極簡主義來表達(dá)親密和孤獨(dú)的纏結(jié)，在一場災(zāi)難性的、無以言說的生離死別后，在廢墟中尋覓新的意義。

Sparhawk has spoken of his desire to offerlisteners tension without release in Low’s music. One route to that idea mightinvolve continuous motion without a goal in mind, a recognition of deep andcomplicated truth in the old adage that the journey is more important than thedestination. HEY WHAT expresses something similar with its final track, “ThePrice You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off).” After 42 minutes of organized chaos,the duo finally offers the slamming catharsis of a rock backbeat, the album’sfirst. Everything about this moment—the swelling feedback, the heart-tuggingchord changes—suggests a grand release. But as soon as it arrives, it begins torecede. The clouds gather, the harmonies cycle uneasily; the drums cut out,then back in, then out for good. “It must be wearing off,” Parker and Sparhawksing together, and the promise of salvation at the end of the road flickersagain out of view.

Sparhawk曾說過，他希望通過Low的音樂為聽眾提供不曾釋放的緊張感。實(shí)現(xiàn)這一想法的一種途徑可能涉及到腦海中盲目的胡思亂想，這也是對古老格言“過程比結(jié)果更重要”中復(fù)雜深奧的真理的認(rèn)同。在《HEY WHAT》的最后一首歌?" The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)"中表達(dá)了類似的東西。在近42分鐘的有序混亂之后，這對組合終于猛烈地宣泄出這張專輯首個(gè)搖滾背景樂。蘊(yùn)含在這一刻中的一切——膨脹的代價(jià)，牽動心弦的和弦變化——都預(yù)示著一個(gè)盛大的解脫。但它一旦到來，便隨即消散。云層聚攏，和聲不安地循環(huán)往復(fù)；鼓聲中斷，然后重啟，最終再次戛然而止、一蹶不起。Parker和Sparhawk一起唱道：“It must be wearing off.”遠(yuǎn)在視野之外的路途盡頭，救贖的承諾則再次閃爍。