Slow Dancing Society
““a complexity of sound that allows it to stand out from traditionally ambient music… It is easy to get dissolved in this album, to let yourself fall into meditation as the music plays… an aural delight” – The Silent Ballet
Slow Dancing Society is Washington-based producer and musician Drew Sullivan. As with Brian Eno’s finest moments and David Sylvian’s ambient explorations, Slow Dancing Society’s music manages to dissolve its temporal markers and speak about moments removed from time. It talks to the delicious flaws of memory and feeling whilst never sullying itself with literality or simple documentation.
Discography
The Disappearing Collective Vol. I
February 2020
Born from the slow burning affirmation of the things we hold and their dissolving nature as every day gets shorter.
We are the collective.
Songs For The Lonely – I
January 2020
…we’re all in the dark looking for the light…
The Dream Council
April 2019
On The Dream Council, the second Slow Dancing Society release of 2019 following the epic Fantosmes, Drew Sullivan embraces his cinematic leanings with full force. Drawing equally on the strident melodicism of John Williams and the brooding low end of Hans Zimmer, The Dream Council excels in its dynamic interplay between light and shade, rest and propulsion. The album offers a carefully mapped out narrative path, exploring a beautiful liminal space between the earthly and the cosmic.
Fantosmes
February 2019 Following on from The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II, voted as the best ambient release of 2018 by Textura, Fantosmes finds Slow Dancing Society expanding his twilight enquiries in multiple dimensions. Comprising four eleven-plus-minute tracks, the expansive breadth and depth of this album is tempered by its attention to texture and detail. Sullivan masterfully terraforms astonishingly vivid and robust soundscapes from otherwise fragile, ephemeral sounds. Whereas The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II felt like a night drive through cities and suburbs, Fantosmes seeks to escape our earthly bounds, with a more universal, cosmic trajectory.
The Torchlight Parade (Vol.II)
August 2018 Volume II of Slow Dancing Society’s (Drew Sullivan) The Torchlight Parade continues the artist’s immersive nocturnal sonic tapestries. While Vol. I was marked by a sense of exploration and tension, Vol. II arrives at a place of reflection and resolution. Much like its predecessor, where each track title references a specific place in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, Vol. II also creates its own distinct geography – both external and internal. From the graceful melancholy of single ‘Garland’ to the smoky radiance of ‘Shadle Park’, Vol. II is a deeply evocative ambient experience. Sullivan’s ability to work within the ambient format, yet create such complex and engaging narratives is a special thing indeed. Following in the footsteps of Eno, these works are soundtracks to films yet made.
The Torchlight Parade (Vol.I)
May 2018 Continuing Drew Sullivan’s nocturnal explorations, The Torchlight Parade takes a smouldering instrumental palette and sparks it to life with gorgeous slo-mo guitar, pulsating synth bass and sparse beatwork. While SDS’s discography is best described as immersive, The Torchlight Parade feels submersive, pulling the listener into an instrumental soundworld with a genuine depth and distinct sense of place. All of the song titles on The Torchlight Parade refer to actual roads or places in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, mapping out a deeply personal musical psychogeography. A spiritual successor to 2012’s Laterna Magica, the album extends its cinematic intentions through vividly filmic narratives, presenting an incredibly cohesive whole.
prologue: The Magic Lantern
February 2018 While Slow Dancing Society’s 2017 series of EPs navigated intimate human spaces, The Magic Lantern creates a more expansive musical environment. The 20-minute title track’s five movements ebb and flow between gaseous ambient exhalations and more propulsive, kosmische passages, always with its eyes on the stars. A spiritual successor to 2012’s Laterna Magica, ‘The Magic Lantern’ is followed by three superb additional tracks taken from 2017’s My Blue Heaven sessions. The EP precedes Slow Dancing Society’s first full-length for 2018, The Torchlight Parade.
My Blue Heaven
October 2017 Bringing together the Lilac Lullabies, The Best Days of Our Lives, Night Takes Day and Ballads for the Boudoir EPs re-emphasises the sublime flow and masterful arrangements of these 20 tracks. Casting new light on the various facets of the SDS sound, each side of the double vinyl is devoted to one of the four EPs, creating a wonderfully evolving listening experience. From sensual, free-flowing ambient and instrumental dream pop to pulsing, Tangerine Dream-esque kosmische and sensual ambient-soul, My Blue Heaven is a soft-focus, immersive collection that sits perfectly with the rest of Drew Sullivan’s enviable body of work.
Ballads for the Boudoir EP
September 2017 Much like 2014’s The Dusk Recital EP, Ballads for the Boudoir marries SDS ambience with a more sensual, soul-inflected direction, coloured by restrained rhythms, atmospheric sax and warm synth tones. Ballads for the Boudoir has the feel of mid-career Roxy Music, with its romantic, dreamy style. From the downbeat dub-soul of opener ‘An Invitation’ through to the crystalline rhythm guitar work of closer ‘The Melting Sky’, Ballads for the Boudoir is a soft-focus closing chapter to this seductive suite of EPs.
Night Takes Day EP
25th August 2017 Following on from the recently released Lilac Lullabies and The Best Days of Our Lives EPs, Drew Sullivan presents Night Takes Day, the third in a series of four new Slow Dancing Society EPs, lovingly mastered by Taylor Deupree. Each EP will be released digitally, one per month from June to September 2017, with the four EPs released on double vinyl later in the year. The pulsing, kosmische feel of Night Takes Day evokes liminal states between evening and night, and between night and daybreak. Each instrumental scene continuously changes colour, shifting from Tangerine Dream-esque twilight to swelling electronic ambient dawn. ‘Pulsing Amber’ is prime sci-fi electronica, with hypnotic arpeggios and expansive analogue sweeps, while the hopeful melancholy of ‘Do You Want To Get Out of Here’ feels like a musical nod to the horizon. Night Takes Day plays out like the soundtrack to a 15-minute Soderbergh sci-fi short – succinct yet expansive and continually evolving.
The Best Days of Our Lives EP
21st July 2017 Following on from the recently released Lilac Lullabies EP, Drew Sullivan presents The Best Days of Our Lives, the second in a series of four new Slow Dancing Society EPs, lovingly mastered by Taylor Deupree. Each EP will be released digitally, one per month from June to September 2017, with the four EPs released on double vinyl later in the year. The Best Days of Our Lives is a sublime set of instrumental dream pop, dripping in gorgeous ambient guitar work and Slow Dancing Society’s trademark atmospherics. Opener ‘The Smiling Dawn’ pairs heartbreaking guitar with disorientating swirls of static, while the dream-pop of ‘Lilacs’, reminiscent of Disintegration-era Cure, is a clear highlight of the SDS discography. The EP re-establishes Sullivan’s exceptional command of melody and ambience, culminating in a release that is as luxuriant as it is emotionally poignant.
Lilac Lullabies EP
16th June 2017 Following hot on the heels of the reissue of his acclaimed debut album The Sound of Lights When Dim, Drew Sullivan presents Lilac Lullabies, the first in a series of four new Slow Dancing Society EPs, lovingly mastered by Taylor Deupree. Each of the EPs will be released digitally, one per month from June to September 2017, with the four EPs released collectively on double vinyl later in the year. Lilac Lullabies is a concise, five-song serving of SDS’s sensual, free-flowing ambient. It revisits the atmospheric feel of earlier albums The Sound of Lights When Dim, The Slow and Steady Winter and Priest Lake Circa ’88, with a delicious sense of space and restraint. Centrepiece ‘A Quiet Storm’ reaches heavenwards with its Gilmour-esque guitar lines, while ‘Before We Wake’ is a meditation on weightlessness, with gently pulsing bass and an ephemeral shroud of synth. And ‘The Dusty Morning Light’ brings the EP to a reflective close with its beautifully wistful Mellotron line.
The Sound of Lights When Dim (2017 Remaster)
28th February 2017 First released back in 2006, The Sound of Lights When Dim was one of Hidden Shoal’s most acclaimed early releases, landing on many ‘best of’ ambient lists. It introduced Drew Sullivan as an artist capable of imbuing minimal ambient compositions with enviable depth and emotion. While he has gone on to release another six full-length albums, his debut album still stands among his best work, unfolding as one long sumptuous ride towards a fading horizon. As with Eno’s finest moments and Sylvian’s ambient explorations, The Sound of Lights When Dim manages to dissolve its temporal markers and speak about moments removed from time. It talks to the delicious flaws of memory and feeling, while never sullying itself with literality or simple documentation. The fact that album track ‘A Song That Will Help You Remember to Forget’ has been streamed over 5 million times on Spotify speaks to the album’s lasting appeal. The Sound of Lights When Dim is available as a limited edition clear vinyl and in digital formats. To coincide with the release, the reissue is accompanied by a set of remixes of tracks from the original album by Echo Grid, Antonymes, Fr33dom People, Candlepark Stars, Startle the Heavens, Spenzar, Chloe March, and Monte Xannic.
The Wagers Of Love And Their Songs From The Witching Hour
23rd August 2016 On his seventh full-length release as Slow Dancing Society, Drew Sullivan’s sound continues to evolve. This 19-track epic meshes the warm, rich SDS sound with a new set of textures, bringing these musical snapshots into vivid definition. Trumpet and saxophone nestle amidst lyrical guitar lines, pulsing rhythms and expansive synths, creating an immersive and melancholy listen, tempered with rays of hope. Sullivan’s work is as cinematic as ever, yet here he’s scoring a more personal film. Profoundly influenced by Sullivan’s experience of becoming a father for the first time, the album took shape around the creation of single ‘The Color of Despair’. The track distilled his anxieties about his new life and responsibilities, and became ground zero for the album’s sound and production, with many other songs on the album evolving out of its instrumentation and feel. The ambient lyricism present here is a testament to the narrative possibilities of instrumental music, resulting in a strikingly complete-sounding album.
The Dusk Recital
The Dusk Recital was borne out of the sessions for Slow Dancing Society’s last album The Cogent Sea and is, in part, an instrumental homage to the mainstream dream-pop of the 90s. Cavernous drums, minimal guitar licks a la Roxy Music, and smooth saxophone lines feature prominently across these six tracks, all enveloped in the unmistakable Slow Dancing Society sound and feel. This is Drew Sullivan at his most playful, offering us a glimpse into some of the guilty pleasures he acknowledges as influences, while also delivering a deliciously smooth and immersive listening experience.
The Cogent Sea
Slow Dancing Society’s sixth album The Cogent Sea is another absorbing progression in Drew Sullivan’s mesmerising discography. The album continues the submersed exploration of Sullivan’s ’80s influences while also drawing upon an incredibly focused and cinematic ambient minimalism. There are trademark elements from across Slow Dancing Society’s stunning, critically acclaimed back catalogue, but rather than being throwbacks they present a continuity of narrative that is rarely found over such a large body of work. On single ‘A Clearing’, gently overlapping waves of synthesizer are suspended amid sustained tones, holding the listener transfixed before Sullivan’s trademark guitar sound gently brings the listener back down to earth, transformed. Second single ‘Pull’ is aptly titled, its droning radiance, warm piano chords and magnetic guitar figures pulling the listener irresistibly into its enveloping glow. This is Slow Dancing Society at his masterful, immersive best.
Laterna Magica
Slow Dancing Society’s fifth album Laterna Magica demonstrates another key progression in the Slow Dancing Society discography, which is becoming one of the essential bodies of work in contemporary ambient music. The tracks are underpinned by gorgeous guitar drift and warm synth wash, sparingly propelled by throbbing electronic undercurrents. From the soft-focus exhalation of ‘A Few Moments’, via the gleaming musical universe of recently released single ‘I’ll Leave A Light On’, through to the hypnotic pulse and drifting melancholic piano of finale ‘Tomorrow’s Another Day’, Laterna Magica is a definitive Slow Dancing Society release.
Under The Sodium Lights
Following on from the ebullient warmth of the critically acclaimed Priest Lake Circa ’88, Under The Sodium Lights is Drew Sullivan’s latest ambient epic. The album feels like a distillation of the three stunning releases that preceded it – and as such is Sullivan’s finest work to date. The delicate interplay between focused melodic details and blurred washes of sound draws the listener into a hypnotised state, where the waking world and the world of sleep cascade in and out of balance. First single ‘…and to the dust we shall return’ sees the gradual accretion of reverberant guitar tones, emerging from the silence as sparse reflections across the stereo field. Slow searching melodies overlap and accumulate before a descending bass figure carries the song home to its elegiac conclusion. From the luscious, tactile dream of ‘The Songs In Your Eyes’ to hopeful finale ‘Love Is On The Way’, Under The Sodium Lights resonates with a rich emotional core – and the choking realisation of our own transience. The album rewards immersive listening from start to finish, to really soak in its beauty.
Priest Lake Circa ’88
Following on from the ice-sculpted cinematics of the critically praised The Slow and Steady Winter, Priest Lake Circa ’88 is Drew Sullivan’s finest work to date. In essence, it is the second part of a double album that began with The Slow and Steady Winter, acting as a long-distance conclusion to the double album’s narrative arc. Priest Lake Circa ’88 exudes restraint and repose, yet is so richly melodic and full. While the album draws its raw form from ambient music, post rock and even dream pop, it is masterfully crafted into something that could only ever find itself under the Slow Dancing Society moniker. The album speaks of both departure and eventual return, and perhaps in its broadest sense the notion of “home”. Above all, this is music to bathe in: warm, steamy and all-encompassing.
The Slow and Steady Winter
From the outset The Slow and Steady Winter sets itself up to be an epic. Clocking in at over an hour long and comprising of only eight tracks the album paints its majestic landscapes with both measure and purpose, unfolding a sound that moves from immersive ambient evocations to beatific bliss rock. The Slow and Steady Winter is not concerned with singularity but rather the totality of experience. The album is a gorgeously choreographed chronicle of a Spokane winter from the ice covered fields of ‘The Early Stages of Decline’ to the thawed warm edges of spring in ‘February Sun’. The album serves as a wonderful progression from Slow Dancing Society’s previous work both in sound and mood. In part it presents a much darker vision while still radiating an ineffable sense of humanity and heart.
The Sound of Lights When Dim
The Sound of Lights When Dim is a sumptuous unfolding ride towards a fading horizon. As with Eno’s finest moments and Sylvian’s ambient explorations, this work manages to dissolve its temporal markers and speak about moments removed from time. It talks to the delicious flaws of memory and feeling whilst never sullying itself with literality or simple documentation.
Biography
Slow Dancing Society is Washington based musician/producer and nostalgist extraordinaire, Drew Sullivan. If ever there was an artist who truly expressed themselves in a way that defies everything music and art expects, and at times demands, then Slow Dancing Society would be that artist. With influences ranging from classic artists such as Brian Eno, Def Leppard, Tears For Fears, The Cure, Eddie Money, Pink Floyd, Prince, Spandeau Ballet and U2 to contemporary artists like Manual, Charles Webster, Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Rós, Hammock, Red House Painters and My Morning Jacket, one might begin to understand what they are in for when they hear something coming from Slow Dancing Society.
At times there is a pure abandonment of structure, continuity, consistancy and most importantly, hipness. If one were to compare the music of Slow Dancing Society to anything, it would be our memories and our past. Which is probably why one will experience such a sense of nostalgia and an overall coloring of sentimental values when they listen to the music. One cannot refute the notions that life is abstract, doesn’t always make sense, isn’t always beautiful (though at times the contrary) and never what it seems. So why then does the music have to be?
News
Slow Dancing Society’s “The Dream Council” Out Now
We’re excited to announce the official release of The Dream Council, the masterful new album by post-ambient artist Slow Dancing Society. The album is available now via Bandcamp and is also available across all good online platforms such as Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.On The Dream Council, the second Slow Dancing Society release of 2019 following the epic Fantosmes, Drew Sullivan embraces his cinematic leanings with full force. Drawing equally on the strident melodicism of John Williams and the brooding low end of Hans Zimmer, The Dream Council excels in its dynamic interplay between light and shade, rest and propulsion. The album offers a carefully mapped out narrative path, exploring a beautiful liminal space between the earthly and the cosmic.
All songs from The Dream Council along with the rest of the Slow Dancing Society catalogue are available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
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New Slow Dancing Society Single, Album in April
The flow of amazing new material from Slow Dancing Society is not looking to stop anytime soon. Case in point, the stunning new single ‘There’s Nothing in Motion and I’m Satisfied’, lifted from the forthcoming Slow Dancing Society album The Dream Council. Stream the track via SoundCloud and then head to Bandcamp and pre-order the album ahead of it’s 20th of April release.The entire Slow Dancing Society catalogue is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
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Slow Dancing Society “Fantosmes” Out Now (Vinyl, Tape, CD & Digital)
We’re very excited to announce the release of another slice of Slow Dancing Society brilliance. The sublime four track long player Fantosmes is now available on vinyl, tape, CD and in digital formats. The tape release is in collaboration with the wonderful folks at Dreamshore Tapes and all other physical and digital formats are available at the Slow Dancing Society Bandcamp page and all good third party digital stores and streaming services.Following on from The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II, voted as the best ambient release of 2018 by Textura, Fantosmes finds Slow Dancing Society expanding his twilight enquiries in multiple dimensions. Comprising four eleven-plus-minute tracks, the expansive breadth and depth of this album is tempered by its attention to texture and detail. Sullivan masterfully terraforms astonishingly vivid and robust soundscapes from otherwise fragile, ephemeral sounds. Whereas The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II felt like a night drive through cities and suburbs, Fantosmes seeks to escape our earthly bounds, with a more universal, cosmic trajectory.
“More than a decade after the release of his first Slow Dancing Society collection, The Sound of Lights When Dim, Drew Sullivan continues to uphold the high standard of that debut with his two-volume The Torchlight Parade… an encompassing portrait of this distinguished ambient-electronic artist” – Textura on The Torchlight Parade, their #1 ambient album of 2018
“Drew Sullivan continues to confirm his status as a master of instrumental melodic ambience” – Long Live Vinyl (Wyndham Wallace) on The Torchlight Parade
The entire Slow Dancing Society catalogue is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
Continue reading →Three Hidden Shoal Albums in Textura’s Best of 2018!
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It’s that time of year and our favourite best of 2018 list is out at Textura. We’re honoured to have three of our releases included this year. Slow Dancing Society‘s The Torchlight Parade Vols. I-II was chosen by Textura as their number one ambient album of the year and Chloe March‘s Blood-Red Spark and Todd Tobias & Chloe March‘s Amialluma both featured in the overall top 10 list. Massive congratulations to those artists and many thanks to Textura for their continued support of exciting new music.
Pledge and Get Slow Dancing Society’s “The Dusk Recital” on Vinyl!
You know you want Slow Dancing Society‘s gorgeous The Dusk Recital on vinyl, so why aren’t you doing anything about it? Make it happen with a pledge at Qrates!“Sweet, but not too sweet, wistful, but not melancholic, The Dusk Recital provides another distinctive, emotionally open and atmospherically charged SDS affair. Highly addictive. Highly recommended.” – Igloo Mag
Continue reading →Hidden Shoal in Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018 List!
Hidden Shoal is incredibly honoured to have been selected as one of Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018. Textura is, in our opinion, the premiere new music magazine and favourite of the label team for unearthing and exposing new and exciting new music. This is the second time Hidden Shoal has been selected in Textura’s best labels list and as always we are nestled against some other very special labels, all of who you should check out.Now for a very brief and unnecessary acceptance speech – we are nothing without our incredible roster of artists, who continually amaze, inspire and surprise us. Thank you all!
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Torchlight Parade Vol. II” Out Now!
We’re excited to announce the official release of the second and final part of Slow Dancing Society’s The Torchlight Parade. Vol. II represents the tenth album in the US-based ambient artist’s expanding discography, which began with The Sound of Lights When Dim (2006), now considered one of the classics of modern ambient. The album is available now via Bandcamp and all good 3rd party stores including Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.“To a secret and hidden place where the past and present merge in a luminous cascade of sights and sounds which few can discern. How far can one artist and their craft pull you out of your own life? Listen to this album and decide that for yourself, only don’t do it hastily and don’t expect it all to hit you at once. This individual clearly revels in the sublime, no note is out of place, no hint of beauty given up rashly. Everything is conceived and composed to hit all those sweet spots in your head which you thought no one else could. It’s divine here, think I’ll stay a while.” – Santa Sangre on The Cogent Sea
Volume II of Slow Dancing Society’s (Drew Sullivan) The Torchlight Parade continues the artist’s immersive nocturnal sonic tapestries. While Vol. I was marked by a sense of exploration and tension, Vol. II arrives at a place of reflection and resolution. Much like its predecessor, where each track title references a specific place in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, Vol. II also creates its own distinct geography – both external and internal. From the graceful melancholy of single ‘Garland’ to the smoky radiance of ‘Shadle Park’, Vol. II is a deeply evocative ambient experience. Sullivan’s ability to work within the ambient format, yet create such complex and engaging narratives is a special thing indeed. Following in the footsteps of Eno, these works are soundtracks to films yet made.
Slow Dancing Society’s music is available for licensing across film, tv, games, web and beyond. Hit us up for more info.
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New Slow Dancing Society Single from Forthcoming Album
We’re excited to be able to present ‘Garland’, the first cut from The Torchlight Parade. Vol. II, the second and final part of Slow Dancing Society’s The Torchlight Parade. Vol. II represents the tenth album in the US-based ambient artist’s expanding discography, which began with The Sound of Lights When Dim (2006), now considered one of the classics of modern ambient. The Torchlight Parade. Vol. II will see release on the 3rd of August. ‘Garland’ is available to stream via SoundCloud and download via Bandcamp.Volume II of Slow Dancing Society’s (Drew Sullivan) The Torchlight Parade continues the artist’s immersive nocturnal sonic tapestries. While Vol. I was marked by a sense of exploration and tension, Vol. II arrives at a place of reflection and resolution. Much like its predecessor, where each track title references a specific place in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, Vol. II also creates its own distinct geography – both external and internal. From the graceful melancholy of single ‘Garland’ to the smoky radiance of ‘Shadle Park’, Vol. II is a deeply evocative ambient experience. Sullivan’s ability to work within the ambient format, yet create such complex and engaging narratives is a special thing indeed. Following in the footsteps of Eno, these works are soundtracks to films yet made.
All Slow Dancing Society’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Torchlight Parade Vol.1” Out Now!
The stunning The Torchlight Parade Vol.1, the ninth album from US-based ambient artist Slow Dancing Society (Drew Sullivan) is now officially available. The album is the first installment of a two part series with Vol.II seeing release in August this year. For the uninitiated, Sullivan’s debut, The Sound of Lights When Dim, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is now considered one of the classics of modern ambient. The album is available now via Bandcamp and all good 3rd party digital stores.Continuing Drew Sullivan’s nocturnal explorations, The Torchlight Parade takes a smouldering instrumental palette and sparks it to life with gorgeous slo-mo guitar, pulsating synth bass and sparse beatwork. While SDS’s discography is best described as immersive, The Torchlight Parade feels submersive, pulling the listener into an instrumental soundworld with a genuine depth and distinct sense of place. All of the song titles on The Torchlight Parade refer to actual roads or places in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, mapping out a deeply personal musical psychogeography. A spiritual successor to 2012’s Laterna Magica, the album extends its cinematic intentions through vividly filmic narratives, presenting an incredibly cohesive whole.
Slow Dancing Society’s entire catalogue is available for licensing across tv, film, games, web and beyond. Contact us for more information.
Continue reading →
New Slow Dancing Society Single, Forthcoming Album
We’re very excited to announce The Torchlight Parade, the forthcoming ninth album from US-based ambient artist Slow Dancing Society (Drew Sullivan). Sullivan’s debut, The Sound of Lights When Dim, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is now considered one of the classics of modern ambient. The first cut from the new album, ‘East Sprague’, is available now via SoundCloud and Bandcamp, with the full album seeing release on the 4th of May.“To a secret and hidden place where the past and present merge in a luminous cascade of sights and sounds which few can discern. How far can one artist and their craft pull you out of your own life? Listen to this album and decide that for yourself, only don’t do it hastily and don’t expect it all to hit you at once. This individual clearly revels in the sublime, no note is out of place, no hint of beauty given up rashly. Everything is conceived and composed to hit all those sweet spots in your head which you thought no one else could. It’s divine here, think I’ll stay a while.”” – Santa Sangre on The Cogent Sea
Continuing Drew Sullivan’s nocturnal explorations, The Torchlight Parade takes a smouldering instrumental palette and sparks it to life with gorgeous slo-mo guitar, pulsating synth bass and sparse beatwork. While SDS’s discography is best described as immersive, The Torchlight Parade feels submersive, pulling the listener into an instrumental soundworld with a genuine depth and distinct sense of place. All of the song titles on The Torchlight Parade refer to actual roads or places in Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, mapping out a deeply personal musical psychogeography. A spiritual successor to 2012’s Laterna Magica, the album extends its cinematic intentions through vividly filmic narratives, presenting an incredibly cohesive whole.
Slow Dancing Society’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more information.
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Reviews
Slow Dancing Society “The Torchlight Parade Vol. II” Reviewed at Long Live Vinyl
“Following a companion volume released this spring, Washington-based Drew Sullivan continues to confirm his status as a master of instrumental melodic ambience. As its title suggests, the Torchlight Parade series is ideally suited to night-time listening, with synths sparkling over the minimal beats of The Ridpath like something by the foolishly undervalued Marconi Union, and the exquisite Monroe threatening to storm like Mogwai, but instead exercising a soothing restraint worthy of The Album Leaf. Browne’s Addition, meanwhile, offers rich, slow-paced synth chords recalling the late-80s instrumental work of David Sylvian – most notably Gone To Earth. Other leftfield 80s analogies are also appropriate: Marycliff adds echoing, Durutti Column-style guitar chords to its mysteriously mournful atmosphere, and there are, inevitably, echoes of Eno’s More Music For Films on Skagit and The Campbell House. That the collection also recalls the comedown music of the mid 1990s underlines its timeless appeal.”
– Long Live Vinyl (Wyndham Wallace)
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Torchlight Parade Vol. II” Reviewed at Textura
“Mere months after Drew Sullivan (aka Slow Dancing Society) issued The Torchlight Parade‘s first volume, the second appears to complete the project in exemplary manner. Certainly each holds up magnificently as a stand-alone illustration of contemporary ambient sound design, but experiencing them together makes the strongest possible impression. Adding to the project’s allure is a double-vinyl presentation that sees lime green and silver discs housed within a beautiful gatefold sleeve. Twelve years on from the release of his auspicious debut, The Sound of Lights When Dim, Sullivan has brought his creative skills and artistic sensibilities to exceptionally high levels on this latest collection. As stated in the review of the first volume, the twenty-seven-track opus provides an encompassing portrait of this distinguished ambient-electronic artist.
The second volume doesn’t simply extend the project with variations on the first’s tracks. Instead, while there’s overlap between the parts in terms of sound design and general concept, there’s a critical difference between them: the sense of unease and tension pervading the inaugural set is countered by resolution and calm in the second. As the project’s denouement, it’s as critical a part of the work as the first half, the two combining to create a powerful sense of completeness. Like its predecessor, the second volume references in its track titles site-specific details associated with Sullivan’s home town of Spokane, Washington, a move that amplifies the project’s personal resonance.
Compared to the first part, the pieces on the second volume are a tad quieter, subdued even, which also lends them a rather furtive, clandestine quality. Listening to Sullivan’s nocturnal tapestries, one visualizes an insomniac in a pitch-black apartment at 3 A.M. watching lights flickering across the walls and ceiling or perhaps someone drifting through the city in the middle of the night, with street lamps and neon signs bathing everything in eerie, fluorescent light. While a certain state of restfulness is intimated, the material isn’t without rhythmic urgency; gentle pulsations animate many of the twelve settings, with sequencer-like patterns the thread connecting the elements within a given arrangement.
As with the first volume, piano (acoustic and electric), bass, guitar, and synthesizers are sound sources, though muted trumpet surfaces a number of times to enhance the slow burn. Sullivan lets each setting bleed into the next, a move that not only strengthens the feeling of momentum but deepens the entrancement by not breaking the spell. Such an approach gives the recording the character of a tour through a slumbering city, with various locales ostensibly transformed into snapshots when viewed from the inside of a car as it undertakes its nocturnal ride.
“Garland” is a particularly effective example of the album’s mood and style, even though any one of its pieces could be cited as representative. In this case, acoustic guitar strums punctuate a lumbering, downtempo groove as rich swathes of electric guitar and keyboard textures flesh out the atmospheric display for four wholly immersive minutes. Perhaps even more powerful is the remarkable “Marycliff,” which rises to a haunting level when a lovely series of electric guitar phrases emerge alongside granular washes and willowy keyboard figures.
Throughout the album, there’s energy, but of the subdued kind, the impression established of a city still pulsing with energy but regenerating itself in preparation for the intense daylight activity to come. If there’s ever been a more convincing evocation in musical form of a middle-of-the-night city setting than The Torchlight Parade, I’ve yet to hear it.”
– Textura
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “Prologue: The Magic Lantern” Reviewed at The Burning Ear
“Following up last year’s TERRIFIC release (it made my top 10 albums of the year!) “My Blue Heaven”, Slow Dancing Society has returned with “Prologue: The Magic Lantern.” With “These Dreams of Fire Burned Out”, Drew sets out to (successfully) prove drone can be beautiful. Sludgy, yet heady, drones fill the space of the track while still being immensely beautiful in a dark, heavy way. In the latter section, Drew’s signature fire-tinged guitar work sparsely shines through, adding yet another sonic layer to this complex, and emotional journey of a track.”
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society ‘Lilacs’ Reviewd at The Burning Ear
“Lilacs must have been locked in a time capsule for a while, because it’s straight out of a 90’s high school prom – in the best possible way. We suggest pulling someone special close to you and reminiscing on your favorite Buffy The Vampire Slayer episodes. Or which Soundgarden album is the most underrated. Or pro tips on keeping your Tamagotchi alive. Just try not to step on each other’s Doc Martens.”
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Best Days of Our Lives” Reviewed at The Sunday Experience
“still with hidden shoal, a newly peeled offering from Slow Dancing Society entitled ‘II – the best days of our lives’ has been the subject of a fair amount of swooning around here not least track 2 which incidentally is the title cut, a beautifully caressing slice of lights lowered nocturnal mellowness oozed and snoozed in tripping riff ripples of reclining bliss bathes all affectionately ghosted in a Robin Guthrie like tenderly coiling intimacy.”
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “Night Takes Day” Reviewed at Opus
“The title of Slow Dancing Society’s latest EP is rather apropos: the languid guitar lines and sparkling synthesizers create a sense of day passing into night, of sunlight giving way to a mysterious, even dangerous darkness. “Remember, Love” easily sets the mood, as Drew Sullivan’s guitar lines shimmer and reflect off of dark electronic undercurrents. In keeping with the song’s title, there’s a nostalgic sense — but the guitar notes reveal an edge in the song’s final moments that keeps it from growing too sentimental.
Those undercurrents reappear on “Pulsing Amber,” this time evoking empty city streets coated in a slick of rain and neon light. Meanwhile, “Do You Want to Get out of Here“‘s gentle synthwave wouldn’t be out of place on the Stranger Things soundtrack. Finally, the EP ends on a harrowing note with the creepy synths and roiling guitar distortion of “The Morning After,” which suggest something ominous took place the night before.
At only 16 minutes, these songs can seem more like sketches, but to Sullivan’s credit, each one feels fully-formed (and, at the risk of sounding clichéd, like imaginary film scores) — each capable of firing one’s imagination enough to wonder what keeps happening after the music ends, and the morning returns.”
– Opus
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Wagers of Love and Their Songs from the Witching Hour” Reviewed at Hypnagogue
“No one can accuse Slow Dancing Society (Drew Sullivan) of skimping on the music on The Wagers of Love and Their Songs from the Witching Hour. Sullivan offers up a full 19 tracks over 74 minutes, packed with his signature sound, a warm, round, and lovingly echoed guitar style that has held my attention since I first heard it many albums ago. The Wagers of Love… also finds Sullivan taking this style into new places and shapes, lifting it out of its usual atmosphere of dreamy melancholy and crafting a full-band sound on several tracks–and it all works. There are places here where, even as a long-standing SDS fan, I find myself surprised at moments of rock power, bluesy shreds, and even a little bit of smooth jazz sax. “Greenwood Boulevard” is packed with all the familiar SDS essentials: that tone, a pizzicato accompaniment, tons of sweet soul, gritty riffs, and an indescribable background wash that’s a sure identifier of Sullivan’s sound. In spots he lays out trills that feel like nods to Mark Knopfler. He cranks up the blues on “Evening Falls,” carving those lines out of a starting source of misty drifts and the requisite melancholy. A hit of unexpected sax and drums, and you start to feel those blues creep in until Sullivan opens up a short, sweet, slow-hand solo. There are many of those out-of-nowhere moments to enjoy. There’s a spot in “Turning In” where a sudden burst of wah-loaded goodness drops some hefty hell, yeah potency. “Are You Still There” moves from its initial quiet and moody state to develop a smooth sense of casual funk. You’ll hear the guitar’s cool gangster lean when it slides in. Aside from these ear-catching moments, what comes through as clearly as always on a Slow Dancing Society release is the incredible depth of feeling. Sullivan is a very emotive player, finding something to say with every note that rings with an amazing sense of personal relevance. These are thoughts we’ve had, things we’ve been through, moments we’ve experienced, and it takes these notes to pull them up. Even the soulful heartbreak sax that closes everything out in the last moments of “Love Isn’t Love Until It’s Passed” manages to take what could be a bit of a cheesy smooth jazz sound and make it meaningful.
There’s so much to listen to on The Wagers of Love…, and all of it’s good. Is 19 tracks a little exorbitant? Maybe, and some listeners may not prefer to take in so much of Sullivan’s signature style all at once–there is the risk of sameness. Personally, I can never get enough of this sound, and I think there’s enough variation and playing with the core idea to keep it from getting stale. Deep down, I think what you’re hearing is the sound of a talented musician really, really enjoying himself. I believe you’ll enjoy it, too. A lot.”
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society ‘Radiance’ Reviewed at The Sunday Experience
“A passing posting notifying us that Slow Dancing Society’s ‘the sound of lights when dim’ is shortly due for re-release with this 2006 gem being treated not only to a full remastering treatment but additionally arriving accompanied and extended by the inclusion of some very tasty remixes, one of which by Antonymes having, as it happens, hooked itself upon our lobes. This defrosting beauty peels away all daintily frost weaved and adored in a fragile statuesque tracing both tender and alluring whilst somewhat steeled and stilled in an ethereal toning that’s incubated in a wide eyed longing. ”
Continue reading →“Eat Your Friends” Compilation Reviewed at DOA
“Over almost a decade, Hidden Shoal records developed a reputation as a consistently innovative and experimental music label, giving to us music of remarkable qualities whether it was the instrumental excursions of Gilded, the blissed-out indie of My Majestic Star, the electronica of Marcus Mehr, the alt.folk stylings of Kramies – the HSR list of significant talents was a lengthy one. I say was, as in 2014 or thereabouts, the Hidden Shoal label underwent a reorganisation of sorts, and it began to seem that one of the more influential Australian record labels of the recent past was itself going into hiding. Perhaps so, although only to return refreshed, renewed, invigorated and with its varying artistic visions intact – the Eat Your Friends compilation proves that the Hidden Shoal label is properly with us again.
One thing I’ve found when reviewing compilations is that not infrequently, when I put them into my music players, the tracks separate instead of remaining in their album folder, and that has happened with my copy of Eat Your Friends, encouraging me to view each of the tracks as a single release rather than view the album itself as a cohesive whole. Then there’s the fact that only some of its contributors are already known to me and so, ditching some of my preconceptions about what it’s going to sound like, I began listening to the 11 tracks in a random sequence, and prepared for the unexpected.
Firstly, there’s singer/songwriter Erik Nilsson’s “Moksha Can Wait”, a song which electronic composer Marcus Mehr has taken and adapted to his subtly developed production sound, a track that begins almost inaudibly and builds to a staggering crescendo of soaring, roaring electronic sound and with Nilsson’s guitar and piano providing a counterpoint to Mehr’s swirling atmospherics. The ambient chill of City Of Satellites is given an added gloss by Tim Manzano, although I’m not so sure what he’s actually done with the track – it does sound a lot like the City Of Satellites I know from their Machine Is My Animal album, although as the track progresses and the rhythm and bass begin to disintegrate into a dubby conclusion it seems more apparent where Manzano has left his mark. Arc Lab’s “Through The Burning Glass” is remixed by Glanko, beginning with a club-level bassline before levelling into a noir tinged synth epic. And just when you thought the tracks on Eat Your Friends were entirely instrumentals, Rew perform a cover version of Umpire’s “Green Light District” and they do it with a vocal, alongside the strings and crashing cymbals and haltingly uncertain rhythms, a highlight of an album each of whose tracks is in one or another way remarkable.”
– DOA
Continue reading →Slow Dancing Society “The Wagers of Love” Reviewed at Music Won’t Save You
[Translated via Google. Read the original here.]
“A long title and an equally articulated nineteen songs facility marks the seventh work of Drew Sullivan, which coincides with the tenth anniversary of its activities under the alias Slow Dancing Society . In this broader context, which is well over the total duration of time, the Washington guitarist ranges from artist now sailed among the regulars soundscapes that combine atmospheric size and post-rock characters and consistent ramblings in less explored territories.
Thus, compared with a starting light environmental mold, subsequently clocked by electronic and harmonic-rhythmic pulsations buildings pointing to emotional involvement, the work gradually reveals aspects of Sullivan’s personality so far remained on the margins of his artistic creation. This corresponds to a part of his old musical passions, directed to something decidedly more “classic” than realized in own; It happens so that the guitars are stripped naked of environmental reverbs to reveal languor suffused psychedelic seventies, that you are of the warm colors from the ancient rock flavor.
The Past as passionate and one from Sullivan musician are melted in yet Slow Dancing Society trip, which rises to the occasion creative canon endemic nostalgia that expands from a concrete expressive modality sensations.”
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Licensing
Slow Dancing Society’s music is available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.