Vegtable Push Slowcore Further on Hit by a Car

In Singapore’s rock scene, speed is the default. Vegtable work against it. The trio of guitarist Daniel Borces, bassist Jeriel Lim and drummer Shenen Khoo all play in louder bands elsewhere, and this project functions as deliberate subtraction: slowcore in a city of fast guitars, closer in spirit to Low, Duster and Yo La Tengo than to anything happening around them.

Their second album, Hit by a Car, on Field Work Recordings, takes that removal further. Where the debut Through the Motions balanced droning with occasional release, the new record leaves more space open. The band’s stated reference point is Acetone, the Californian trio who would settle on a progression and let it sit largely unchanged, twang included. Vegtable move toward that steadiness. “That’s Cool” and “Repetitions” turn on a chiming guitar tone and Khoo’s light, pattering drums. On “The Bliss” and “Dogs”, Borces and Lim sing together, and the overlap reads as reassurance inside an otherwise uneasy record.

The cheerier “Stay” and “Take Steps” recall the band at their least restrained, though neither reaches the climax indie rock tends to promise. At 24 minutes, Hit by a Car does not overstay. Its premise reportedly came from a friend cycling slowly into a car, an anticlimactic image that suits music this resistant to grandiosity. Not everything has to escalate.