Like its predecessors,
Slow Food is an album of flanged tones, rampant clicks & cuts, and kitchen sink effects. The demo
Brad Laner submitted to Planet Mu emerges here with very few changes. Like experimental ambient peers
Oval,
Pan Sonic, and
Pole,
Laner fuels his music via glitches and distortions, foregoing traditional arrangements and more mathematical compositions.
Slow Food works best when
Laner tosses gentle melodies into the general sonic debris, as on "I'm in a Mazda," which almost seems to sample the shimmering shoegazer dynamics of
Laner's old band,
Medicine.
Laner stumbles a bit in a few extended passages when he abandons the underbelly of fragile notes for somewhat obvious noise-mongering junglism or aimless, bubbly effects. Closer in feel to the lo-fi, all-over-the-map musings of
Cex than the innovative explorations of genre front-runners like musical madman
Venetian Snares, tone poem designers
Mum, or master arranger
Mike Paradinas,
Laner's music seems crafted under a hit-or-miss modus operandi. The production here feels perhaps more accidental than some listeners will appreciate, though it's abundantly clear that a great deal of planning and tweaking went into each song. While
Laner might not match the intensity or genius of the artists who inspired his transition to electronic music,
Slow Food is still frequently quite beautiful and compelling.