Vowws
Can't let 2015 fade without mentioning this album...
Chances are we've all been there. You're at a gig, catching a band on the undercard. It's the first time you've seen them - probably the first time you've even heard of them. The acoustics suck, there's a low rumble to the bass that will derail freight trains at 100 paces, the vocals - heaven forbid you actually want to hear them - are either washed out to sea or dissipate into the ether... And did I mention the "crowd?" Most likely, apart from the band's friends, you're just one of a handful who are actually - and self-consciously - paying anything more than scant attention. Bottom of the bill, their set is truncated. Doesn't leave a lot of time to leave an impression...
But then - and despite the crappy sound, the lack of 'buzz' - there's a 'something' to the band's songs and that you can't quite put your finger on. There's a 'presence' and a palatable energy; the songs - for all the wall of noise that threatens to crush the air from you - have both form and structure. There's an overwhelming sense of the band's professionalism and not inconsiderable musicianship - "craft" - and by the time their all to brief set has finished you feel an overwhelming desire for more. As luck would have it, the band have some merch for sale, including their CD - it's only ten bucks - about the same price as the watered down gnats-piss that some venues try and pass-off... You know that it's more than worth a punt...
Vowws are LA-based duo Rizz and Matt. The pair met while studying in Sydney, forming an experimental-rock band with Rizz on synths and Matt playing guitar, the pair of them sharing the vocal and songwriting duties. Having served their dues on the Australian scene, they found themselves in Los Angeles at the turn of the decade and augmented to a four-piece, released an album. However with the project dissolving, Rizz and Matt relocated to New York for a few years where they shaped the intense sound that - with the help of veteran Swans producer Kevin McMahon - honed the cinematic soundtrack that is the CD I had searched out; Vowws' debut album "The Great Sun."
There's actually a great interview with Rizz and Matt on Post-Punk.com where the pair discuss in some depth the influences behind both their sound and album - which despite what I'm going to write from this new-found fan's perspective - turns out to be as much the writing of William Burroughs, the scores of Phillip Glass and the soundtracks to a myriad of horror movies - as much as any particular artist or band...
Chances are we've all been there. You're at a gig, catching a band on the undercard. It's the first time you've seen them - probably the first time you've even heard of them. The acoustics suck, there's a low rumble to the bass that will derail freight trains at 100 paces, the vocals - heaven forbid you actually want to hear them - are either washed out to sea or dissipate into the ether... And did I mention the "crowd?" Most likely, apart from the band's friends, you're just one of a handful who are actually - and self-consciously - paying anything more than scant attention. Bottom of the bill, their set is truncated. Doesn't leave a lot of time to leave an impression...
But then - and despite the crappy sound, the lack of 'buzz' - there's a 'something' to the band's songs and that you can't quite put your finger on. There's a 'presence' and a palatable energy; the songs - for all the wall of noise that threatens to crush the air from you - have both form and structure. There's an overwhelming sense of the band's professionalism and not inconsiderable musicianship - "craft" - and by the time their all to brief set has finished you feel an overwhelming desire for more. As luck would have it, the band have some merch for sale, including their CD - it's only ten bucks - about the same price as the watered down gnats-piss that some venues try and pass-off... You know that it's more than worth a punt...
Vowws are LA-based duo Rizz and Matt. The pair met while studying in Sydney, forming an experimental-rock band with Rizz on synths and Matt playing guitar, the pair of them sharing the vocal and songwriting duties. Having served their dues on the Australian scene, they found themselves in Los Angeles at the turn of the decade and augmented to a four-piece, released an album. However with the project dissolving, Rizz and Matt relocated to New York for a few years where they shaped the intense sound that - with the help of veteran Swans producer Kevin McMahon - honed the cinematic soundtrack that is the CD I had searched out; Vowws' debut album "The Great Sun."
There's actually a great interview with Rizz and Matt on Post-Punk.com where the pair discuss in some depth the influences behind both their sound and album - which despite what I'm going to write from this new-found fan's perspective - turns out to be as much the writing of William Burroughs, the scores of Phillip Glass and the soundtracks to a myriad of horror movies - as much as any particular artist or band...
Unfortunately horror isn't a genre that I'm particularly familiar with (I'm more of an subtitled art-house boy myself) and I can't say that Phillip Glass features in my not-as-extensive-as-I-thought collection; growing up in a small village in Cambridgeshire, the chances of finding any William Burroughs in the local library was somewhat remote, so I'll just have to make do.
The truth is I'm just a little bit out of my comfort zone, but as I've remarked from time to time, I like to be challenged - even intimidated - by music and "The Great Sun" is most definitely an album up to the task.
With no literary or cinematic reference points I'm forced to try and make sense of the musical explosion that assails and invades my senses.
And so I'm reminded of "Violator"-era Depeche Mode, of Bauhaus - indeed there is just a touch of the Pete Murphy meets a suave Nick Cave about Matt - and hints of Dead Can Dance and the criminally underrated Clan of Xymox (if the Clan were in a particular dark mood). Even Mrs Blog - a woman of a somewhat 'focused' musical appreciation - picked up on Basildon's finest - not to mention an astute "this sounds a bit like Gary Numan..."
That's because it's almost impossible to talk about the album without mentioning "Losing myself to you." Throbbing synths explode to a fuzzy vortex of multi-layered distorted guitar and analogue synths before Numan's uniquely robotic - but strangely soothing - voice take centre-stage; a calm amongst a burbling tempest of droning, swirling synths and clipped, flat guitars - before fusing alongside the harmonious delivery of Rizz and Matt. It's a masterful vocal contrast - and one that highlights Vowws compositional craft - the song was written specifically with Numan's vocals in mind. The song's video, with lyrics cut-out in block capitals ("...You will always be, Mine..."), all strobe-lit and stylised cinéma vérité, hints at the soundtracks that have inspired the duo.
The truth is I'm just a little bit out of my comfort zone, but as I've remarked from time to time, I like to be challenged - even intimidated - by music and "The Great Sun" is most definitely an album up to the task.
With no literary or cinematic reference points I'm forced to try and make sense of the musical explosion that assails and invades my senses.
And so I'm reminded of "Violator"-era Depeche Mode, of Bauhaus - indeed there is just a touch of the Pete Murphy meets a suave Nick Cave about Matt - and hints of Dead Can Dance and the criminally underrated Clan of Xymox (if the Clan were in a particular dark mood). Even Mrs Blog - a woman of a somewhat 'focused' musical appreciation - picked up on Basildon's finest - not to mention an astute "this sounds a bit like Gary Numan..."
That's because it's almost impossible to talk about the album without mentioning "Losing myself to you." Throbbing synths explode to a fuzzy vortex of multi-layered distorted guitar and analogue synths before Numan's uniquely robotic - but strangely soothing - voice take centre-stage; a calm amongst a burbling tempest of droning, swirling synths and clipped, flat guitars - before fusing alongside the harmonious delivery of Rizz and Matt. It's a masterful vocal contrast - and one that highlights Vowws compositional craft - the song was written specifically with Numan's vocals in mind. The song's video, with lyrics cut-out in block capitals ("...You will always be, Mine..."), all strobe-lit and stylised cinéma vérité, hints at the soundtracks that have inspired the duo.
However it would be grossly unfair to focus purely on this one song, since every track on this album hits you with dark, anthemic pop melodies that straddle huge gobs of distorted and reverbed guitars, deeply textural analogue synths and FX'd-vocals to create the most intense of soundscapes.
The album advises and needs to be played loud and indeed I did just that while driving home from the gig, winding my way down the moonlit coast through Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. You're immediately hit by the album's opening and title-track, a violent maelstrom of disturbingly melodic yet hard-hitting and darkly gothic industrial pop; Matt's baritone vocals and Rizz's deep and distorted voice surfing this turbulent aural canvas. It's hard to describe the sheer power (although I probably need to refresh myself with the Gypsy Death and You theory as to why duos create the most intense sounds...), not to mention both the depth and texture of the sound that Vowws have created - aided by a dynamic range so vast that peeling away at the layers is akin to hewing rocks out of the bare earth.
The album advises and needs to be played loud and indeed I did just that while driving home from the gig, winding my way down the moonlit coast through Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. You're immediately hit by the album's opening and title-track, a violent maelstrom of disturbingly melodic yet hard-hitting and darkly gothic industrial pop; Matt's baritone vocals and Rizz's deep and distorted voice surfing this turbulent aural canvas. It's hard to describe the sheer power (although I probably need to refresh myself with the Gypsy Death and You theory as to why duos create the most intense sounds...), not to mention both the depth and texture of the sound that Vowws have created - aided by a dynamic range so vast that peeling away at the layers is akin to hewing rocks out of the bare earth.
And it was while driving home - with the CD on auto-repeat - when I have an epiphany. "The Great Sun" is a two-lane flat-top of an album, with only searing headlights to illuminate the tarmac that stretches into the inky blackness and cut through a dark-foreboding cinematic panorama. Consider the album's movie poster cover and how each track feels as if it is part of an organic - living - body of work that is not to be considered - dissected - in isolation, rather appraised as movements or as part of a score. For this is the soundtrack to a movie not yet made - set in a dystopian future - that plays out on a sepia-tinted screen in not only Rizz and Matt's imagination but ours...
And that's the joy of this album. The haunting disembodied voices of "Against the gates" or "Stranger"; the warming fuzzy synths of "The Councillor" on which Rizz's captivating vocals feature centre-stage; the atmospheric and slightly melodramatic dream-pop that is "The only one" which fades to silence and into the unnerving "It's you" and lyrics that state "...Restraint it's not my middle name, but I'm subject to promises that I've already made..." or "Waiting for me", the album's finale, with it's synth beats and questioning lyrics; "...Are you still waiting for me?" Each song engorged by huge gulps of sound that threatens to come crashing down and submerge the listener yet in the next breath evokes a sense of calm and solitude...
And that's the joy of this album. The haunting disembodied voices of "Against the gates" or "Stranger"; the warming fuzzy synths of "The Councillor" on which Rizz's captivating vocals feature centre-stage; the atmospheric and slightly melodramatic dream-pop that is "The only one" which fades to silence and into the unnerving "It's you" and lyrics that state "...Restraint it's not my middle name, but I'm subject to promises that I've already made..." or "Waiting for me", the album's finale, with it's synth beats and questioning lyrics; "...Are you still waiting for me?" Each song engorged by huge gulps of sound that threatens to come crashing down and submerge the listener yet in the next breath evokes a sense of calm and solitude...
And then there's "Crying." The Roy Orbison standard. Not so much covered or reinterpreted, as deconstructed - stripped - reimagined and rebuilt. I'd listened to the song twice before there was an inkling of recognition...
"The Great Sun" is an album that demands and deserves respect and if I'm honest I'm still overawed by the imposing quality of this album, but it would have been my loss if I hadn't have seen Rizz and Matt's spellbinding performance and bought this album.
Despite it being 2016, it is one that deserves to appear in any 2015 retrospective.
Me? I owe it to myself to catch Vowws playing in a venue with half-decent acoustics and a band I intend to find out a whole lot more....
Vowws (Website)
"The Great Sun" (Bandcamp)
"The Great Sun" is an album that demands and deserves respect and if I'm honest I'm still overawed by the imposing quality of this album, but it would have been my loss if I hadn't have seen Rizz and Matt's spellbinding performance and bought this album.
Despite it being 2016, it is one that deserves to appear in any 2015 retrospective.
Me? I owe it to myself to catch Vowws playing in a venue with half-decent acoustics and a band I intend to find out a whole lot more....
Vowws (Website)
"The Great Sun" (Bandcamp)
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