The memorable and catchy melodic hooks, lo-fi guitar licks, splendid song compositions, and dreamy, reverb-heavy vocals of Madison, Wisconsin musician Wes Doyle, aka, Slow Loris, blew us away the first time we heard the tracks he sent us a few weeks back. In fact, we’ve only come to admire this relatively unknown one-man DIY bedroom artist the more we have listened to his music, by now having spun all of Doyle’s 30 or so tracks – all of which he has released via one EP and two LPs in the past 16 months.
The more we listened to his music – and the more people that asked ‘who is that?’ – the more apparent it became that we had to profile Slow Loris as an Artist of the Week, especially since he really hasn’t had very much exposure compared to the enormity of his talent. It would be difficult to understand if Doyle doesn’t get more attention from the music press and blogosphere, and ‘indie’ and alternative music lovers, in the weeks to come.
Some music fans are showing signs of being burnt out by successive waves of young DIY bedroom musicians who create lo-fi, hazy beach pop and soon find themselves gaining name recognition in the more mainstream music press after they’ve successfully branded themselves – usually without the aid of a label, publicist and manager – following a blitz of blogger buzz.
We can definitely see why some people would be burnt out, but we say if a new artist is making some sweet tunes, and send them in to us, it would be a disservice to our readers and visitors to not share – especially a musician who is definitely not just another copy of Panda Bear, but instead has an authenticity that is quite refreshing and all his own. That’s why we really believe that Slow Loris is one of the great overlooked DIY artists of 2011. We even kind of scratch our heads wondering – “why isn’t this guy getting the love he deserves?” And that’s what we do all of this for – to expose overlooked artists and bands, rarely heard songs, and under the radar albums.
As with many relatively unknown DIY artists that IRC has profiled over the years, the organic quality of Doyle’s songs, and the fact that he composes, sings, plays all of the instruments, and mixes and produces all of his songs himself, adds a level of originality and rawness that is not possible with Top 40 mainstream music, and creates a mystique that makes his music all that more appealing. Following the release of his debut album, Extra Colors, last November, Slow Loris just dropped his second album, Routine Glow, in June.
Below are two tracks from Routine Glow that exemplify why it is an overlooked album. “Everybody Knows,” with its cool guitar licks, sounds like an epic track in the tradition of alternative rock circa 1995 – you can clearly hear evidence of Slow Loris’ affinity for alt rock bands like Pavement and Built to Spill. Following that standout track, is yet another standout track – “Practice” – that is undeniably of the chillwave/bedroom pop origin. These tracks are also qualifiers for the upcoming mixes of Best Rarely Heard Songs of 2011.
“Everybody Knows” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow
“Practice” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow
Over the past five years especially, the rise of one-man (and increasingly, one-woman) bands has really created it’s own successful, and wildly popular, sub-genre within a sub-genre of indie rock. In this case, Slow Loris is a one-man lo-fi beach rock band, and, as with some other eclectic one-man bands, he covers so many genres and sub-genres that it’s nearly impossible to give a simple answer to “what is his sound like?” It’s recorded layers of chilled beats, shimmering guitar notes, enticing hooks, cozy rhythms, reverb-heavy vocals, and glistening synth keys with a clear influence of alternative rock.
Slow Loris’ sound is similar to bands like Wavves and Beach Fossils, and to a lesser extent, Wild Nothing and The Drums. Doyle lists among his biggest influences artists that range from alternative rock gods Pavement, indie bands like No Age and Yo La Tengo, psychedelic classic rock bands like The Velvet Underground, and post punk and Brit Pop bands such as Television, Big Star, and Teenage Fanclub.
In fact, you can hear all of these influences in Doyles wonderfully crafted songs. Last November, he released his debut album, Extra Colors, which followed his March 2010 EP Dreamland. Here are three tracks from that album that we want to share. Just choosing three tracks from this spectacular album – perhaps one of the most overlooked of the summer – was not an easy thing to do.
“La La Swin” – Slow Loris from Extra Colors (2010)
“We Were Never Alone” – Slow Loris from Extra Colors (2010)
Doyle’s sound at times definitely falls into the lo-fi beachwave indie rock sub-genre, even though Madison is some 1,000 miles east of the Atlantic. But, if you count the shores of the Great Lakes as beaches, then his has a nearer source of inspiration. Yet, his beachy/sunny/sandy sounds makes sense after learning that Doyle is a recent transplant to Madison from Delaware, a state not exactly known nationally for its beaches, but it has them nonetheless. Here is another track from his most recent album, plus his 2010 EP, Dream/Vacation, released in March of last year.
“Golden Lines” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow
“Dream Vacation” – Slow Loris from Dream/Vacation (2010)
Listen to and download more of Slow Loris’ music via Bandcamp