Lowlife - The Permanent Sleep

Was there really a need for yet another dark-wave oriented band in 1985, when the gothic wave seemed to have exhausted its creative momentum? Perhaps not, yet bringing the ill-fated story of Lowlife back into the light means doing justice to a band that, over a decade of activity, managed to distill all of its inner malaise into a handful of records, some of them of genuinely moving beauty.

The Scotland of the early '80s was teeming with important bands from the new wave scene: Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins and Associates, but also Josef K, Aztec Camera and Orange Juice, the latter two linked to the Postcard label phenomenon; there was also a strange outfit called Dead Neighbours, from whose ashes, as we'll see, Lowlife would emerge.

Dead Neighbours were a band from Grangemouth devoted to psychobilly sounds, one that the magazine Sounds didn't hesitate to dub Europe's answer to the Cramps. The lineup featured Craig Lorentson on vocals, David Steel on bass, Ronnie Buchanan on guitar and Grant McDowall on drums.

In '82 they recorded the naive Harmony In Hell, which nonetheless got the band into the indie charts, earning them support slots on tours with icons of the caliber of the Damned and Johnny Thunders.

During the sessions for the second album, the group was left without a bassist, as Steel, freshly married, was pressured by his wife into leaving. It was the determination of their manager Brian Guthrie, Robin Guthrie's brother from Cocteau Twins, that kept the band afloat; he immediately smoothed over the discontent following the original bassist's departure, bringing in Will Heggie, who had just left Cocteau Twins in the middle of their 1983 European tour supporting Omd.

With the excellent Heggie on bass, the sessions for Strangedays Strangeways were completed, a record that shows interesting flashes of inspiration without straying too far from the psychobilly themes of its predecessor, with the ghost of the Cramps still hovering over the studio.

Heggie, drawing on his experience with Cocteau Twins, wanted to steer the sound toward more gothic-oriented atmospheres, but Buchanan, a diehard psychobilly fanatic, wasn't willing to carry on under those conditions: he was replaced by Stuart Everest, a talented guitarist and friend of Heggie's.

After the change of direction, Dead Neighbours no longer had a reason to exist, but they were ready to be reborn as an entirely new creature called Lowlife: the choice of the new name was influenced by the Pil song of the same title, which, as we'll see, would fit the band members' own stories perfectly - tales of alcoholism, depression, brawls.

In '85, Rain came out on Nightshift Records: just six tracks that, while not exactly groundbreaking in terms of sonic originality, showcase an excellent Lorentson, particularly inspired in his songwriting, gripped as he was by the cloak of anguish pervading his soul. Here are his own words on the matter: "I only write when I'm drunk or stoned, ninety per cent of my life is shit".

"Sometime: Something", the opening track, best captures Lorentson's cry of despair: the drumming is spare and essential, the guitar distorted and diseased. "Reflection Of I" highlights Heggie's magical bass lines, firm and sustained, while the dramatic tones of the vocals seem to want to repeat themselves endlessly. It's again Heggie's commanding bass that sets the coordinates for "Gallery Of Shame", where the dark depth of the voice conveys a sense of impending doom that looms over the entire track. "Sense Of Fondness" and "Hail Ye", meanwhile, stand out for their powerful drumming and keyboards, which lend a further sense of drama to a work as naive as it is captivating.

The atmosphere of Permanent Sleep, the band's first full-length the following year, grows even more anguished and oppressive, the rhythm section slows further, becoming almost martial, while Lorentson's baritone sinks into a hopeless, isolationist dimension. The lyrics and the voice recall Ian Curtis, but it's the whole record, with its strong gothic overtones, that will be compared to "Closer" by Joy Division. The English magazines, by now won over by the band's sound, increasingly indulge in glowing reviews.

"Cowards Way" catapults the listener into a journey steeped in oppressive desolation, "As It Happens" reveals Heggie with his bass ever more in command of the melody, where the slow, distorted guitars alternate with Lorentson's bleeding verses. There's no room for choruses, only intense, aching verses, repeated throughout every track, as if to hypnotize the listener before dragging them into a vortex of anguish with no way back.

"Wild Swan" is a gem of rare beauty: the guitar abandons distorted tones for more melodious, clean effects, giving us the first dream-pop piece of their output. We're close to the atmospheres of Chameleons, the melodic, epic ones of their debut. The title track evokes melancholy visions of broken love, where there's no happy ending even for dreams, with Lorentson increasingly grappling with his drinking problems. "A Year Past July" unfolds subdued and resigned, as does the instrumental "Betting And Gamming Act" 1964 with its martial gait, while "Do We Party", even more decelerated and uncertain, is embellished by the icy touch of the synth.

Though lacking any particular originality, Permanent Sleep wins favor for its excellent songwriting and the spartan side of its arrangements, which blend perfectly with Lorentson's desperate baritone.

It's 1987 when Diminuendo comes out, an album split between the band's usual dark-tinged sounds and fragile dream-pop reverberations: their cousins the Cocteau Twins, at the peak of their creativity at that moment, would prove an immense source of inspiration in this respect for the band's new direction.

With "A Sullen Sky" it's magic right away: the purity of the guitar tones intertwines with Heggie's dazzling bass as never before, the lyrics of "Big Uncle Ugliness" are airy yet still full of pathos, keyboards and acoustic guitars enrich an instrumental fabric where there's now a palpable melancholy streak in place of the pessimistic vision of Permanent Sleep. "Ragged Rise To Tombledown" retraces the gothic stylistic traits of the debut, but the sound is extremely polished, the wall of abrasive guitars, while not completely dismantled, alternates with effects such as chorus and flanger, making the instrumental dynamics epic and dreamlike.

"From Side To Side" is a hidden gem in an inscrutable abyss, blending romantic melodies and existential drama with admirable simplicity, never reaching points of friction or instrumental rupture. The languid melody of "Off Pale Yellow", with its romantic cellos, lays the foundation for a renewed, precise and polished style, richer in arrangement yet understated and elegant, never coming across as bombastic or overblown. The soft caresses of "Tongue Tied And Twisted" perfect this evocative alchemy, lifting the melody toward dream-pop territory, while the ending of "Given To Dreaming", a bittersweet, melancholy-tinged ballad, seems to evoke, through its guitar, tears shed for a lost love.

Godhead, from '89, marks the departure of guitarist Everest, replaced by Hamish Mackintosh, active with his own project under the moniker Fuel, while for production duties the band called on Stephen Fellows of Comsat Angels, a band the Lowlife have always been big fans of.

Fellows' excellent work gives the sound a remarkable attention to arrangement, which would lead the band definitively into dream-pop territory and, at times, even flirt with synth-pop. "In Thankful Hands", the opening track, has a martial drumming pattern against which the effects-laden guitars and Lorentson's baritone stand out, while "When I Lay, I'll Lie" stands out for the seductive, dreamy guitars of new recruit Mackintosh.

The new direction shows a certain pessimism lightening up, but the aching melancholy of "Marjory's Dream" still doesn't offer the carefree lightness that Lorentson, by now a chronic alcoholic, might have needed. The lyrics of "I Don't Talk To Me" are telling in this regard. "Drowning Leaves" shows a strange kind of crossover between dream-pop and folk-tinged accents, but the high point of the entire record is "Bittersweet": a melancholy ballad where Heggie's wavering bass ends up fraying as it descends into lower registers, while the crisp sweetness of the guitar offers an exquisite embroidery to the reflective, subdued vocal lines. "I The Cheated", a splendid ballad for voice and synthesizer alone, evokes romantic visions of old cult movies, while "Missing The Kick" and "Forever Filthy" stand out for powerful drumming and furious, rock-leaning guitars.

Mackintosh leaves to go back to recording with his project Fuel, while drummer Grant loses a finger during a football match. In place of the two departed members, the band recruits Hugh Duggie on guitar and Martin Fleming on drums, both coming from Mutiny Strings.

Still far from the mainstream and prevailing trends, the album San Antorium is released under the Lowlife name in '91, a record even more polished and overproduced than its predecessor. Heggie and Lorentson are thrilled with it: "It's the sound we've been chasing for years!". Indeed, from a purely formal standpoint, the record, thanks to producer McLean's work, comes across as impeccable, yet the atmospheres seem overly stretched out, the songs lose their cohesion, and the immediacy and hypnotic, obsessive repetitiveness of Diminuendo have been lost.

"Bathe", however, is a thoroughly successful synth-pop piece, the heavy use of synths veering sharply toward territory belonging to New Order, while "Inside In" is the usual ballad delivered with the usual emphasis, with the arrangements making it even more grandiose than in the past. The dream-pop of "My Mother's Fatherly" offers genuinely effective guitar interplay, while the following "Big Fat Funky Whale", with its programmed percussive patterns, recalls Modern English's "Machines".

Synthesizers still dominate on "Give Up Givin Up", but for the first time even the bass is sampled, while "Good As It Gets", "June Wilson" and "As Old As New" add nothing to the classic Lowlife ballad, aside from a heavier use of the electronic component.

The final chapter, the controversial Gush, wouldn't see release until 1995. The album, while offering some commendable melodic ideas, alternates them with embarrassing tracks that unmistakably mar the record.

The opening of “Bleach” is gorgeous, an electroacoustic ballad steeped in melancholy and shrouded in a mystical aura, with constant references to Christ; also very effective is Jennifer Bachen's angelic counter-vocal, which contrasts nicely with Lorentson's baritone.

The following “Kiss Me Kick”, unfortunately, strays from the excellent premise set by the opening track, settling into a spineless synth-pop that reveals a clear creative dip, despite the long break the band granted itself over four years of inactivity.

“Former Compadre” brings the band back to a decent creative standard, though it blatantly betrays its debt to Depeche Mode: even the vocal inflections seem to wink at the tones so dear to Dave Gahan. The opening of “Wicked Papa Tantalus” is entrusted to the organ, with the same mystic-intimist atmosphere we noted in our analysis of the opening track, and Jennifer Bachen right on cue with her counter-vocal.

Lowlife, however, no longer have any bite: the new songs are velvety caresses with which to take their leave before sinking into oblivion, or else exercises in style in a vain search for the perfect ballad with subdued, measured tones (“Truth In Needles” and “Tocopherol”). The closing “Swell” runs into effects-laden guitar work recalling the Sad Lovers And Giants of “Feeding The Flame”, but without their melodic appeal, ultimately giving way to anonymous drumming made up of programmed percussion patterns.

A band with little commercial potential, Lowlife never pursued the single route to launch their five official albums (except on one occasion); the handful of concerts they played, moreover, all in Britain, never allowed them to go beyond the modest cult following earned through their released work.

In 2010 their story turned to tragedy, with the death of Lorentson at just 44 years old, following a series of liver and kidney problems.

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