SLOW CRUSH - Thirst (1st Press - Algae Marble)

We finished our new album and although it feels like we’ve created something spectacular, it wasn’t an easy trip! Many times we came close to losing our minds, ready to give up on this wild dream of a band. Post recording we lived through some of the most intense but also most beautiful moments of our lives. It was as if all the album lyrics were the narrative to our life beyond the album. They make even more sense now, drawing out the perfect map for the road ahead. This album is super intense. Every song is unique and heavy, be it in riffs or just emotionally loaded, voicing our own existential feelings as well as the band’s. When we started writing this album we weren’t happy with where it was going. We decided to bin the ideas we had up to that point and started all over again. The result: Songs with more purpose, more intention and more spontaneity. It all feels like the best thing we have ever done. Once those rough ideas and the base of the songs took shape, the fine tuning started. We decided to incorporate tons of demo ideas, excerpts and noises into the final record, knowing some of their magic couldn’t be replicated in the studio. The acoustic on snare rimshots and unplugged electric guitars we recorded in kitchens on iPhones as ideas sounded too cool not to use in the final version. We looped digitally recorded synths through a bunch of analog outboard gear and effects, sampled them and pitch shifted them. Recorded vocals over loud tracks covered with reverb where you can hear all the spill over. Recorded drums at double speed and slowed them down. Pitch shifted entire songs to create weird artifacts. Played chimes super washy with metal spoons, multitudes of drum parts layered making it impossible to play live. There’s even a real life saxophone on this record. Heck there even is one song with over 200 instrument tracks. But all with purpose and full intent. Lots of these little happy accidents made it onto this record in an organic original shape. Big thanks to Lewis Johns for bringing all this craziness together and helping us out with some messy ideas. Your mixes really made this album much better than we ever hoped it could be. Thank you for hanging in at the edge of madness with us! Sorry! All of the above might seem weird. I mean, it’s not a particularly experimental record in any shape or form but it’s got so many layers making everything more interesting. It’s the heaviest we’ve written until now and 100% our best. In our minds, at least. This record is everything we’ve hoped for.

Vinyl release of Slow Crush - Thirst (1st Press - Algae Marble). Released through PURE NOISE RECORDS and available on LP.