Some albums you like and some albums you love and some albums you keep very, very close to your heart. For me, Driving Slow Motion‘s Arda is of the latter category, an album which murmurs my heart’s blood back to me when I listen to it. So naturally, when I heard the band were planning to release Adrift:Abyss this year, I was beyond excited. To get to premiere a track from it, second single “The Fall”, is a true joy. Not only because I get to pay tribute to one of my favorite post-rock bands (something which I’ve done on the blog for) but also because I get to share yet another excellent track from them with all of you. “The Fall” showcases exactly why I love the band, shirking all templates while maintaining the spirit of the post-rock we all love. Head on down below to check it out and we’ll talk after.
While half of the track is ambient build up, “even” that part of it shows how talented Driving Slow Motion are. It’s not your run-of-the-mill, slowly building towards crescendo guitar line; instead, the thick ambience of “The Fall” first part is like the ocean (mirrored in the track’s accompanying video). Because it’s not as structured, and obvious, as what other post-rock bands might do, it really doesn’t prepare for the massive crash that erupts on you when the crescendo does decide to hit. This peak is Driving Slow Motion par excellence; the mournful guitars, the echoing drums, the sense of the dramatic, and the melancholic is simply exquisite. It feels as if the ambient which opened the track explodes through the louder part, the same energies made manifest in a different but connected way.
Just as it arrived, the peak collapses, and the track abruptly ends in mid-sentence, leaving you gasping for air. Or, rather, gasping for more, as you crash from the height of the track’s emotive summit to the lows of silence. A silence which, naturally, waits for the rest of the album to complete it. Adrift:Abyss releases on the 17th of September, through the valiant friends of the blog, Post. Recordings. Head on down to the Bandcamp link below to stay up to date with Driving Slow Motion as we get closer to release.