SLOW DAZZLE

As two-thirds of the songwriting power behind the acclaimed Mendoza Line, Slow Dazzle's Shannon McArdle and Timothy Bracy have spent the past several years translating their classic folk/rock influences into twanging, raucous, entropic refrains. Equally rooted in classic songs, Slow Dazzle represents a sort of urbanization of their previous band's pastoral tendencies, drawing inspiration from great folk icons like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico's post-Velvets material, as well as another romantically involved duo, Richard and Linda Thompson. While taking cues from the canon, however, Slow Dazzle's debut is an unmistakably modern record.

The View From the Floor's layers of electronic sounds and its new approach to production separate Slow Dazzle from Bracy and McArdle's work in the Mendoza Line. Fashioned from buzzing and ticking devices, acoustic and electric instruments, and real and imagined percussion, the album represents chances taken and experiments realized, giving this debut a stunningly fresh and inspired sound. The View from the Floor was recorded in a loft in New York City, perched above a subway stop and a police station with the sound of passing trains and traffic, the low hum of city lights at night and the sirens and street level chatter as both ambient noise and an inspiration to the sounds within. Engineer and principal contributing instrumentalist Peter Langland-Hassan has conjured an environment reminiscent of Big Star's perfectly skewed Third/Sister Lovers at its most vulnerable on these recordings. He's created an ideal atmosphere for Bracy and McArdle's delicate songs of martyred housewives, misplaced hats, political assassination gone wrong, hung juries, dance marathons, drunken chiropractors, and other mysterious occurrences. With ambitious plans in place for a follow-up, this album marks the start of a new and exciting chapter for Bracy and McArdle.

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