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mwvm, "Rotations"
Only a year and a half after their debut release, mwvm (aka Michael Walton) has already entered and settled into a much colder territory. Taking a step forward, Rotations moves its ten tracks on a single flowing journey through shivering layers of guitar and fx coatings. While it may share elements with post rock, isolationism and ambient musics, this is definitely of itself. Heightening this cold atmosphere, the bleached out Saturn's rings-style artwork is the perfect visual accompaniment to the excursion.
The majority of the tracks here favor the abstract over the relaxing guitar-gone-ambient style of his peers. This album stands out as a panacea to the remaining dependence on rock that even the far left of post-rock still retains. It's only the opening "Context. Where?" where memory-tugging melodies and brushstrokes of pedal steel like playing come to the fore. The rise and lull of notes, and their progressive coming together, sees guitar lines floating in alternating layers like varicoloured liquids that won't mix.
Circling itself, "Oratory Clout" adds field recordings and dim electronics to layers of ringing, shivers running alongside and through the notes. There are dark movements across the record, whistling metallic glides and recurring vibrations of satellite paths. The lost horn call sounds of "Negative Pole" are trapped in the air, cold basilica echoes running through Rotations. This records perfect moment though appears on the drowsily titled "Sleepy Crayfish," avoiding guitar glories it goes instead for subtle currents. Gorgeously (and surprisingly, for such a frozen release) capturing a warm underwater world without resorting to anything other than lush emissions of sound, this is mwvm inspiring the rest of the crowd to keep in the gentlest possible way.
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