Slo-Blo (also stylized as Slo*Blo) is the debut album by the American band Cell.[1][2] It was released in 1993 by DGC Records; the band had been signed by Thurston Moore.[3][4] The album was first issued by City Slang, in 1992. The band supported the album with a North American tour.[5]
Production
The album was produced by John Siket and Cell.[6] It had been recorded as a demo.[7] The band concentrated on composing songs, rather than building on riffs.[8] Cell used DGC's money to remix the album for its American release.[9]
Spin called the album "a leaden fumble, as close to formula as indie rock gets."[15] The Chicago Tribune praised the "dynamic six-string melodic grunge, where magisterial riffs and probing guitar jams share equal time."[12]Trouser Press opined that, "if commercial post-punk noise were to get more formulaic than this, it’d have to be stacked in the generic-brand aisle."[16]The Washington Post thought that, "at its most tuneful, on such songs as 'Tundra', Slo+Blo recalled the plaintive, folkish punk of Husker Du."[17]
Entertainment Weekly noted the "muffled drumming, proudly tuneless singing, sprawling arrangements that sound as if they’re about to crumble," writing that "the band forgot to write good songs, making Slo-Blo much noisy ado about nothing."[13]Newsday concluded that, "on songs such as 'Cross the River' and 'Stratosphere', Cell's instrumentation gets very close to standard rock anthems."[7]The Indianapolis Star wrote that "raging guitars here offer a satisfying jolt but [there's] little melodic diversity."[14] The Calgary Herald called the album "hard, methodical, noisy."[11]
AllMusic admired the "fluid, meandering riffs that slowly build and overlap and begin to take shape as something powerful, hypnotic, and cohesive."[10]
