Album Review for Subvulture
MATT KIVEL - JANUS
February 2016
‘Jamie says she’s going away. She don’t say where she’s going to’ sings Matt Kivel. Well, if the following minute or so of ‘Jamie’s’ song is anything to go by- my guess would be that Jamie fell into hyperspace whilst accidentally leaning on the propulsion lever in her Interstellar spacecraft...
Give Matt Kivel’s new album a listen and within minutes you’ll be hit by the staggering chaos of this experimental-folk collaboration with Alasdair Roberts. His beautiful dulcet tones spit out dark and sinister lyrics before being savagely torn apart by a dissonant violin, a rogue piano, or a wild bout of synth.
You think ‘Pyrrha’ and ‘Prime Meridian’ seem to flow quite soothingly, do you? Think again. ‘Prime Meridian’ gives the impression that a jazz enthusiast was let loose on the piano (oh, they were? Of course they were). ‘The Shining Path’, on the other hand, leaves the eerie impression that you might have left the garden gate swinging on its hinge (you know, that garden gate that you don’t own because you can’t afford a garden, let alone a garden gate).
So, all this striking disharmony - what does it mean?!
I have absolutely no bloody idea. Something about the turmoil and restlessness of youth?
Possibly.
Whatever it is, it’s fantastic. I had to give the tracks a few listens before I really got into them, but once you do you begin to develop a sadistic enjoyment for the bizarre commotion of these otherwise soft lamentations.
Tracks such as ‘No Return’ and ‘Janice’ show a begrudgingly subtler, more folky side of the album. Whilst title track, ‘Janus’, showcases the Caledonian genius of ‘some of Scotland’s best musicians and coolest people’. There’s a glistening wonder to the peaking guitar and wild ending of ‘Violets’. It might even be my favourite song on the album.
I can’t tell you what it all means, or where it’s going. But I can tell you that it is imperative that you check it out.