LOWLIFE
ltm catalog

LTM are pleased to present remastered CD reissues by Lowlife, the cult Scottish dream-pop band who released a string of acclaimed albums between 1985 and 1995: Rain, Permanent Sleep, Diminuendo, The Black Album, Godhead, San Antorium and Gush. The core members of the band are Craig Lorentsen, Stuart Everest, Grant McDowall and former Cocteau Twin Will Heggie. For detailed band biography click here. To purchase CDs click here.


ETERNITY ROAD (REFLECTIONS OF LOWLIFE 1985-95) LTMCD 2394 £10
Eternity Road compiles 19 stand-out tracks from all six studio albums (Rain in 1985 to Gush in 1995) compiled by the band themselves, as well as non-album singles such as Hollow Gut and Eternity Road. Several tracks are exclusive to this compilation, including Ramafied (a covermount version issued with Underground magazine) and the 7" edit of Eternity Road. The booklet includes images and a detailed band history by journalist and manager Brian Guthrie. 19 tracks, 75 minutes of music. Full tracklist: Sometime Something, Again and Again, Coward's Way, Permanent Sleep, The Betting and Gaming Act 1964, Hollow Gut, Ragged Rise to Tumbledown, From Side to Side, Eternity Road (7" version), Swing, Ramafied (Underground Version), Where I Lay I'll Lie, I Don't Talk To Me, I The Cheated, My Mother's Fatherly Father, Suddenly Violently Random, Give Up Giving Up, Truth in Needles, Swell.

Reviews: "High quality re-release from avant-shoegazers. Eternity Road is an impressive, passionate collection, Bauhaus-bleak yet complex as jazz. Makes Radiohead sound like Nizlopi" (Uncut, 05/2006); "Profound, melancholic, and reaches the parts more ephemeral pieces of plastic cannot reach" (Melody Maker); "A good introduction - but not all you'll ever need - to a band deserving of care and attention" (NME); "Atmospheric and claustrophobic, music to sharpen razor blades to" (M8); "A gorgeous full swell of sound" (Melody Maker); "Eternity Road collates singles and other highlights from an eventful six-album career making a solid case for their own chapter in the dreampop story. Recommended for fans of slow, eerily atmospheric songs and dense production" (Leonard's Lair, 03/2006); "Culty dream-pop rightfully remastered and reissued" (The List, 03/2006); "Absolutely beautiful cult band - dreamy, melancholic wave songs, and a must for all fans of 1980s guitar bands like The Sound and The Chameleons" (transmission.com, 04/2006)



PERMANENT SLEEP + RAIN LTMCD 2390 £10
Remastered CD combines the debut mini album Rain from 1985 with Permanent Sleep, the first full Lowlife album released the following year. Booklet includes images and detailed liner notes. 15 tracks, 63 minutes of music. Both titles have never before been released on CD. Full tracklist: Coward's Way, As It Happens, Mother Tongue, Wild Swan, Permanent Sleep, A Year Past July, The Betting and Gaming Act 1964, Do We Party?, Sometime Something, Reflections of I, Gallery of Shame, Sense of Fondness, Hail Ye, Again and Again, From Side to Side (original version).

Reviews: "Heggie's nonchalant, imposing bass shapes these gems, constructing enticing, webbed patterns of sound driven by an Echo-type rock momentum" (Melody Maker, 02/1986); "Once you've heard its majesty and shared in its journey you won't want to part with it for love nor money" (Melody Maker, 08/1986); "Lowlife construct their deep atmospheres through hynotically mysterious songs, an the album glides gracefully from beginning to end with tantalising intensity" (Sounds, 07/1986); "Through a wash of guitars and effected vocal lines, Lowlife meander like a slow and beautiful dream, slipping into gear to hammer home that killer punch. Never overpowering, Permanent Sleep is further enhanced by some wistful and charming melodies that readily set the nerve ends on edge. Magnetic." (Q Magazine, 08/1986); "A magnificent and lush sound, layered and tactile" (Music Week, 08/1986); "Perfects a dark majesty all of their own making" (Leonard's Lair, 03/2006)



DIMINUENDO + SINGLES LTMCD 2392 £10
Remastered CD combines the second studio album Diminuendo from 1987 with all four tracks from the 1987 ep Swirl It Swings. Booklet includes images and detailed liner notes. 16 tracks, 59 minutes of music. This is the first time that Diminuendo has been released on CD. Full tracklist: A Sullen Sky, Big Uncle Ugliness, Ragged Rise to Tumbledown, From Side to Side, Off Pale Yellow, Tongue Tied and Twisted, Licking One's Wounds, Wonders Will Never Cease, Given to Dreaming, Hollow Gut, Permanent Sleep (Steel Mix), Ramafied, Swing, Colours Blue, Eternity Road (12" version).

Reviews: "Hyperbole and superlative are safe and easy harbours for critics, yet Lowlife assemble the journeyman's tools of guitar, bass, drums and voice and touch the skies" (Melody Maker, 1987); "Characteristic grim beauty" (M8, 1987); "Evocative and dramatic but never overbearing. Lowlife's sound, drenched in reverb and clean upfront guitars, runs an interesting sweep across a good clutch of favourable influences - the Bunnymen, Comsat Angels, New Order" (Q Magazine, 1987); "A landmark album, bursting with feeling and dripping with emotion" (Music Week, 1987); "A 4AD record in all but name, but played exactly right: the opaque song structures, the aura of wonder, that pulsating bass sound, those outlandish song titles (Underground magazine, 1987); "Diminuendo captures Lowlife at their peak, dismissing the inevitable Cocteau Twins and gothic rock comparisons and crafting an album of real distinction. With the inclusion of some of their best singles, and the strong Swirl It Swings ep, 1987 was definitely the year when Lowlife really should have reached beyond their cult following" (Leonard's Lair, 04/2006)



GODHEAD + BLACK SESSIONS Pt 1 LTMCD 2457 £10
The third studio album from Lowlife was originally released in 1990, and saw Lorentson, Heggie and McDowall joined by short-stay guitarist Hamish McIntosh, who also recorded as Fuel. The five bonus tracks comprise the first half of the impossibly rare promo-only Black Album of demos recorded in 1988. Booklet contains detailed band history and images. 16 digitally remastered tracks, 57 minutes of music. Full tracklist: In Thankful Hands, Where I Lay I'll Lie, Marjory's Dream, I Don't Talk to Me, Drowning Leaves, Bittersweet, River of Woe, I the Cheated, Missing the Kick, Forever Filthy, Everending Shroud, The Beggar's Burning Bush ((demo), Moved to Tears (demo), Acrid Tongue (demo), River of Woe (demo), Where I Lay I'll Lie (demo).

Reviews: "Still contains its fair share of gothic melodrama, while indicating a willingness to lighten their material a little to make it more accessible. What really adds value is the inclusion from five tracks from the rare Black Sessions promo, where the stripped down demos are a perfect setting for Craig Lorentsen's resonant and fragile voice" (Leonard's Lair, 09/06); "A paradigm of the sombre British new wave sound, and years ahead of Interpol or Editors" (PopNews, 02/07); "Godhead continues their legacy of ephemeral, elusive and aching swirlpop. Lowlife are masters of melancholy" (Melody Maker, 1991); "Godhead deserves serious attention" (Music Week, 1990); "Scrambles higher than the sum of its influences, and if not exactly the head of God this is about halfway up his midriff. Buy it" (Melody Maker, 1990)



SAN ANTORIUM + BLACK SESSIONS Pt 2 LTMCD 2468 £10
Fourth album from 1991, produced by Calum Maclean. Here core members Lorentson and Heggie are joined by guitarist Hugh Duggie and drummer Martin Fleming. The five bonus tracks comprise the second half of the impossibly rare promo-only Black Album of demos recorded in 1988. Booklet contains detailed band history and images. 15 digitally remastered tracjs, 60 minutes of music. Full tracklist: Jaw, Inside In, My Mother's Fatherly Father, Big Fat Funky Whale, Good as it Gets, Suddenly Violently Random, June Wilson, Give Up Giving Up, Bathe, As Old As New, Missing the Kick (demo), Bittersweet (demo), Forever Filty (demo), Neverending Shroud (demo), We the Cheated (demo).

Reviews: "Lowlife's fourth album also turns out to be their most upbeat, although the main highlights can be discovered on the Black Sessions offerings, which match the highs of Diminuendo" (Leonard's Lair, 10/06); "Among their best albums, blessed with an expansive production, and a little more uplifting than usual" (PopNews, 02/07); "Lowlife remain immaculate sonic tragedians. Peerless" (Melody Maker, 1991); "San Antorium moves majestically across the landscape, soaring and soothing in its simplicty, blissful in its wilderness" (M8, 1991)


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