Based in London and influenced by a heady cocktail of Swans, Spiritualized, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Radiohead, 60s pop, Middle Eastern classical music and more, Slows Down is the musical pseudonym of multi-talented solo artist Alexander Hawthorne.

A proficient self-taught multi-instrumentalist, he writes music which defies easy categorisation – exploding with multi-cultural ideas and independent in every sense. His debut EP, self-titled, will be available from February 11th, and you can hear an early taster here with ‘The Way Down Leering’:

Written during spells in India and hitchhiking across the US, the EP is full of heavy themes presented with depth and a full on sound. All the many parts are played by Hawthorne himself, self-recorded and produced into one cohesive unit. But in spite of the broad instrumental strokes, the ideas are simple – minimalist even. It makes for a varied and versatile collection of tracks.

The EP is just the beginning of a longer project, in which Slows Down will continue to experiment in unique and creative ways. A full album will follow the EP, and he intends to bring together a group to perform live next year to perform these tracks in full, live for the first time. Thus far, due to Slows Down’s self-contained methodology, his music has lived in the studio and in recorded form. In spite of those limitations, the music is already getting a lot of positive feedback from previous single releases:

“I’ve grown to appreciate simplicity in music almost above all else. This is why, I think, I’ve fallen quite so hard for Slows Down.” – Matthew Healy, GoldFlakedPaint

“Taking advantage of the no compromise necessary freedom that only a true solo recording allows, as well as the opportunity to really sculpt the sound of these tracks with numerous overdubs and extremely careful manipulation, Hawthorne has created an extremely well defined world here”– Nathan Ford, The Active Listener

“A melancholic hypnosis of painstaking beauty. The track weeps from start to finish and manages to conjure some next level, swirling soundscapes. This is all from just one man, lets not forget that…”– Phill Walker, One For The People

The EP will be available in vinyl and download forms from February 11th, and you can also look out for a free download of ‘Silent Night’ to be made available on Christmas Day.

LINKS:
http://soundcloud.com/slowsdown
http://slowsdown.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/slowsdown