An excellent, if slightly left-field album, The Slow Show present a mix of the atmospheric and arty, as if David Bowie was the Big Black Goth and not the Thin White Duke.

Dresden, a former single, opens with a male voice choir sound-alike before piano and spoken word. It sounds in places like something from a feel-good action movie as the hero walks into the sunset, having done good things. The vocals are semi-spoken in a melodic way, though way down the register. Imagine a David Bowie impersonator doing Bowie talking a tune rather than singing. This makes it sound dodgy, but it’s not meant to: it just gives you an idea of the tonal quality of the voice. It’s minimalistic, atmospheric and appealing, and the repetition of words is pleasant on the brain. It’s a cool song.

That’s The Slow Show in a nutshell, and the rest of the album is more of the same. It’s very cinematographic, in that you can easily imagine, with its wide sound, it being in a movie. Track two Long Way Home could be from a Scandi noir crime drama, with lots of fuzzy shots as the character reflects on something terrible. Not that the music is depressing; it’s actually quite uplifting.

Track three Bloodline is actual singing and it’s surprisingly high-pitched for someone with such a bassy speaking voice.
Elsewhere, Brother opens with haunting piano and bass reminiscent of Supertramp’s Only In The Quietest Moments (comparisons could be made with Supertramp of that era in that it’s semi-classical high-quality atmospheric pop).