The state of things today is very much on the mind of frontman Jon Scarpelli and bandmate Scott Simon on the latest record by electronic-rock duo, Low Swans. “The Whole World Has No Clothes” is a 10 song meditation on the waning of modern society set to ambient 80’s tinged synth textures, neo-prog electronic beats and dexterous vocals. Released on November 1st of 2014 to a sold out show, the new Low Swans record has only begun to permeate the scene. With influences as far and wide as EDM, classical minimalism and post-rock, the record is a stylistic leap from their past records. Carrying the thread is Scarpelli’s take on the complexity of the human situation and the underlying tragic beauty. While songs like “Cannibal” and “What you Wanted” harken to specific catastrophes in recent history, they ask the wider question of whether or not the calamities of the past or the future are avoidable. Other songs like “Not Today” and “All of the Lies You Settle For” complement this idea by suggesting that we can be redeemed by our relationships even while the world spins out of control. “Little Boy/Fat Man” goes so far as to suggest the massively destructive power of unexamined conflict between two people.
Low Swans has been a long time coming for frontman Scarpelli with some of their material dating back over a decade, and on this new record, their sound seems to have finally coalesced. Starting in earnest in 2013, the Low Swans sound had been forming Scarpelli’s mind over several years and in a way completes a circle. Jon started out experimenting with electronic music in his formative years in a very primitive form and on a computer that struggled to keep up. Recording raw sounds and editing them into a full composition was his first foray into the medium. Taking inspiration from Radiohead, Bjork and Sigur Ros, this thread of musical interest seemed to get buried over the years by multiple projects in vastly different styles. Over the next 12 years, from punk rock to alt-country, he focused on song craft rather than sonic craft. Building up a huge repertoire of songs all the while leaving the appetite for more elaborate and synthetic texture unsatisfied and confined to files on a computer. Emerging from these other bands an accomplished songwriter, the opportunity had come to put together the production aspirations with the songs to start creating the Low Swans sound which would end up featuring long time collaborator, vibraphonist and multi instrumentalist, Scott Simon. Starting with a 10 song demo in 2011 called “Before & After Disasters”, Low Swans began to develop into what we hear on 2014’s “The Whole World Has No Clothes”. Though preceeded by a notably acoustic EP “Blood & Tolls” in 2012, “The Whole World Has No Clothes” arrives as a moment of synthesis where experience, craftsmenship & spirit emerge as a distilled, genre-defying statement
