Lowly

Heba

Analytical and idiosyncratic first album from schooled Danish meta-pop band.

Danish quintet Lowly occupy the space between triphop, Birmingham band Pram’s fragmented otherworldliness and the electroinfused pop of their fellow Dane Oh Land. If this suggests the conceptual, that they formed at The Royal Academy of Music in Denmark’s second city Aarhus underlines their thoughtfulness. Debut album Heba takes time to get under the skin but, once there, lingers. Track four, Mornings, is the definitive Lowly statement. It begins with clattering programmed percussion and stabs of analogue synth texture setting the table for Nanna Schannong’s detached, drained voice. “How have you been?” she asks. Then, the mood shifts with twinkling, uplifting interjections of treated, shoegazing guitar and a keyboard melody suggesting Lana Del Rey at her happiest. The song ends with each element coalescing in a brief sonic maelstrom. The considered Heba is not immediate, but it worms its way in.