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LARSEN, "REVER"
Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light) tells an almost unbelievabletale in the press release of this latest offering from his Young GodRecords.
I'll briefly summarize: the Italian group wooed Gira to Torinovia odd packages mailed over a 1 year period and, eventually, a simpleinstructive letter to come produce them with a round trip ticket and"an extremely generous amount of money". Gira never once laid eyes uponthe band as they always performed behind screens while he essentiallyfield recorded about 10 hours worth of their sound rituals,conversations/arguments and music. "Rever" chisels that down to 49minutes over 9 tracks. Considering such unorthodox procedures, onewould likely expect something very bizarre, but to my Volcano TheBear-addled brain, it's not really so. It's mostly melodicguitar/bass/percussion groove rock similar to Sonic Youth, YGlabelmates Ulan Bator and every other band out of Chicago. Thefive-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 getinto a groove, especially in the longer 7 to 11 minute songs, they tendto ride it for quite awhile then suddenly shift gears. But it rarelypiques my interest. I'd rank Larsen just above Windsor for the Derbyand below everything else in the Young God back catalog. -
I'll briefly summarize: the Italian group wooed Gira to Torinovia odd packages mailed over a 1 year period and, eventually, a simpleinstructive letter to come produce them with a round trip ticket and"an extremely generous amount of money". Gira never once laid eyes uponthe band as they always performed behind screens while he essentiallyfield recorded about 10 hours worth of their sound rituals,conversations/arguments and music. "Rever" chisels that down to 49minutes over 9 tracks. Considering such unorthodox procedures, onewould likely expect something very bizarre, but to my Volcano TheBear-addled brain, it's not really so. It's mostly melodicguitar/bass/percussion groove rock similar to Sonic Youth, YGlabelmates Ulan Bator and every other band out of Chicago. Thefive-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 getinto a groove, especially in the longer 7 to 11 minute songs, they tendto ride it for quite awhile then suddenly shift gears. But it rarelypiques my interest. I'd rank Larsen just above Windsor for the Derbyand below everything else in the Young God back catalog. - samples:
