Larsen "Rever" Young God Records YG19 2002 (49:14)
Impro #2 (2:41)
Radial (11:57)
Mentre (2:49)
Finger Number Six (7:04)
Intermezzo (4:06)
Akin (7:39)
Intro (1:35)
Maya (8:11)
Impro #1 (3:12)
Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light) tells an almost unbelievable tale in the press release of this latest offering from his Young God Records. I'll briefly summarize: the Italian group wooed Gira to Torino via odd packages mailed over a 1 year period and, eventually, a simple instructive letter to come produce them with a round trip ticket and "an extremely generous amount of money". Gira never once laid eyes upon the band as they always performed behind screens while he essentially field recorded about 10 hours worth of their sound rituals, conversations/arguments and music. "Rever" chisels that down to 49 minutes over 9 tracks. Considering such unorthodox procedures, one would likely expect something very bizarre, but to my Volcano The Bear addled brain, it's not really so. It's mostly melodic guitar/bass/percussion groove rock similar to Sonic Youth, YG labelmates Ulan Bator and every other band out of Chicago. The 5 piece dress it up with male and female voices - English, non-English and non-anything (including some minor backing by Gira) - accordion, organ, trumpet and the odd tape loop sample. Once they get into a groove, especially in the longer 7 to 11 minute songs, they tend to ride it for quite awhile then suddenly shift gears. But it rarely piques my interest. I'd rank Larsen just above Windsor for the Derby and below everything else in the Young God back catalog ...
Where did I get this cd? - Young God Records