{"id":36363,"date":"2015-09-01T17:19:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T22:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=36363"},"modified":"2015-09-02T10:56:08","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T15:56:08","slug":"slow-meadow-slow-meadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2015\/09\/01\/slow-meadow-slow-meadow\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Meadow: Slow Meadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Slow<\/a>The first lesson I learned through meditation was to acknowledge the world and its ambiance. Traffic survives through road construction and I attended class after my blob of a dog (finally) died. Life goes on. Initially, I attempted to find an isolated, amicably quiet location to listen to Slow Meadow\u2019s eponymous album, but I gave up. My phone constantly chimed its synthetic bells like it was initiating a Friday night boxing match. Firetrucks lit the night sky with foretelling colors \u2018en route to another fire alarm prank. Distractions are simply inescapable. But transcending distractions isn\u2019t necessary for the Slow Meadow<\/a> experience.<\/p>\n

Slow Meadow (aka Matt Kidd) recognizes distractions without humoring them. While listening to A Farewell Sonata<\/a> my thoughts rapidly cycled between, \u201cIs that the THX Deep Note?\u201d to \u201cThe low-end\u2019s capacity is identical to Tom Krell<\/a>\u2019s work.\u201d But Matt Kidd gently returned me to his aural landscape — a whitewashed room with regal square-footage but a humble host. For Slow Meadow\u2019s first LP, he does an exceptional job at displaying his talent without oversaturating the album with intentionally \u201cmemorable\u201d moments. Kidd created an experience, and it\u2019s a remarkably balanced one. <\/span><\/p>\n

The opening track Linen Garden, Pt. 1<\/a> features Marc Byrd under his Hammock pseudonym, a frequent collaborator of Kidd\u2019s. The influences of Bryd\u2019s post-rock signature is present throughout Slow Meadows, but not without its idiosyncrasies. Euphoric crescendos aren\u2019t punctuating sentences as much as they\u2019re interjected into them followed by an ellipses rather than an exclamation mark. Euphoria isn\u2019t the intention driving Slow Meadows\u2019 climactic moments. They\u2019re road-signs that guide us. They\u2019re page numbers in the header reminding us where we\u2019re at because, frankly, the world is a distracting place. Technology envelopes us and responsibility gnaws at us. Slow Meadows wasn\u2019t functionally created in a sanitized lab, isolated from humanity and our ambiance. It was created while observing life\u2019s petty nuances. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Kidd acknowledges humanity in the track Summer Vigil<\/a>, it\u2019s not an endearing voice that greets us: it\u2019s a subdued monotonous exhalation, surrounded by awe-inspired strings. Distractions are inescapable, but bombastic conversations surrounding my Slow Meadow experience were simply that: monotonous exhalations — modest hums that weren\u2019t about to remove me from Kidd\u2019s coldly comfortable landscape. With a stoic construct, Kidd imparts listeners with wisdom rather than comfort. The ambience on Slow Meadows is frigid but knowing, and I never wanted to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once Slow Meadows concludes, we\u2019re relegated back to the real world unimpeded. Unlike the conclusion of Mono & World\u2019s End Girlfriend\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cPalmless Prayer \/ Mass Murder Refrain<\/a>\u201d we don\u2019t have a new perspective on the world and its ambiance: we have a refined perspective. <\/span><\/p>\n

Recommended If You Like: Hammock, How to Dress Well<\/b><\/p>\n

Recommended Tracks: 4, 6, 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

DNP: None<\/strong><\/p>\n

Written by Logan Gossett 9\/1\/15<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slow Meadow is memorable without being abrasive or distracting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6418,"featured_media":36399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3235,3230],"tags":[2694,3406,3395,3394,3336],"class_list":["post-36363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-new-music-rotation","tag-ambient","tag-logan-gossett","tag-post-rock","tag-slow-meadow","tag-trance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Slow-Meadow2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}