Slomo — Transits

Transits is the fourth full length releases from this UK two piece, who have been creating drone/doom matter since 2006. I’ve been following the project since their debut, The Creep which saw them brew-up an extremely rewarding blend of folk horror themed bass tones and sinister ambience. For this new release, they are very much departing from the murky & earthbound themes of their past releases, for a distinctly more space & star bound drone trip split into three twenty-to- twenty five minute tracks.

Opening up proceedings we have the just under twenty-five & a half minutes of “Concerning The Explorers”- this centers around a wistful, soothing, yet slightly melancholic guitar scaping pattern. Around this constant element, we get a selection sparkling, at times sourly twinkling, and stretching high-pitched tones. Also ever so often we get the projects trademark sub-bass simmer & purr. The main & constant pattern rather brought to mind some from Stars Of Lid, from say their Tired Sounds album, while the other elements, of course, suggested a more space bound feel- all told it’s a nice moody opener, which sets the tone nicely

Track number two comes in the form of “Super-Individual”, and this twenty three minute track returns to the darker more brooding feel of their early work, but of course with a space-bound vibe. The track brings together a repeated ‘n’ ominous bass tone loop ‘n’ simmer- around this we get darts & sways of space-craft likes blips, intergalactic synth purr, and moody shimmers. The track nicely builds & builds it’s dark &  fairly threatening feel, and to my mind it brings to mind been stalked around a vast-yet-eerier space station by some half-seen but bone chilling alien life form.

The album is topped off with the just under twenty-two minutes of “The Dialectic”.  For this track, we start with a  constant bass buzz ‘n’ hover- which is mixed mid-to-higher pitched space ambient tones.  At around the fourteen-minute point, the bass gets more pressing & rapid in it’s buzzing revolutions, as the more mid-to-high pitched elements get more drilling & seared in their feel. All in all, it’s a nice end to the album, and really blends together the more wistful ambience of the first track, with the more sinister brooding elements of the second track.

It had been around five years since we’d last heard from Slomo with 2012’s The Grain, and I did wonder if we’d ever hear from them again. So it’s great to have a new release in the form of Transits- and with it the projects distinctive sound is still very much in place, but they’ve nicely managed to embrace new themes & subtle sonic developments with this album. On the whole, Transits stands a worthy fourth chapter in their discography, and it will be interesting to see if future releases will see them drift further into space-bound themes, or if they return to their primal & earthy roots.