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Album Review - slow tree by Glans



Hokkaido based Glans have burst onto the scene with slow tree, an album filled with an unearthly mix of meditative, abrasive, progressive, explosive, and surreal sounds that make it feel like you’re traversing some alien wasteland in deep space. The group formed in 2019 as highschoolers and began playing at local nightclubs, exposing them to DJs and dance parties which may have influenced their occasional house-like arrangements heard on slow tree. But Glans is not a dance band. In fact I wouldn’t pigeonhole them into any category or genre as slow tree thrives in the unexpected.  


Indeed, there is a general sense of anxiety and unpredictability riddled throughout the album.  Opener “Oceans11”, a near 8 minute repetitive mix of ambient noise and strange echoing sounds, feels sort of like you’ve found yourself alone in the nightmarish tunnel in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Once you exit this trancelike state, you enter into the cavernous “Deep A”, another instrumental, however, this time the pressure begins to build over its 5 minutes. Rhythmic high hats, crashing cymbals, and swirling synths create a landscape of apprehension and uncertainty and guide us into "NIN" and "Ten", which when combined are one of the most rewarding 20-plus consecutive minutes in music this year.


“NIN” is instantly captivating. LCD Soundsystem and Nico’s Torque are a few influences that I hear, that is until the first vocals of the album appear which resemble classic 80’s punk akin to Black Flag or Subhumans. Hyperspeed guitar riffs come and go in the blink of an eye, the drums do not flinch, and pressure builds until gradually things begin to slow around the halfway mark. But not for long. It picks back up again and morphs into “Ten”, another leviathan on its own course to somewhere completely unknown. Things are stripped bare, we are completely engulfed in whispered, hypnotic vocals and bubbly synths, but if we listen closely the guitars, high hats, and cymbals are still there somewhere in the background, waiting to strike like guard dogs, bulldogs perhaps. Around the 7 minute mark we are met with high pitched noise, a singularity. These are uncharted waters, or maybe not waters at all but rather some foreign terrain unknown to us. The last 4 minutes offer some fake reprieve, as the track transforms into a post-punk freakout as if Horse Lords, Parquet Courts, and GG Allin decided to form a supergroup. 


This all leads into the no strings attached final track “hi de to”. Raspy, full-throttled vocals screech across 2 minutes of techstep-style drums and splitting guitar tones. By the time the track ends, we are not sure what to make of the previous 40 minutes of auditory terrain we have just traversed. What we are sure of, however, is that slow tree is must-listen new music, and Glans is one to watch.


- Nathan Skinner



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