Void Beats/Invocation Trex

構成数 : 3
合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
Cavern of Anti-Matter, the project of former Stereolab members Tim Gane and Joe Dilworth and keyboardist Holger Zapf, is nothing if not prolific: before the arrival of their official debut album, the trio issued the mini-album Blood Drums and a large handful of singles and EPs. None of this material appears on Void Beats/Invocation Trex, a 72-minute excursion that gives the band plenty of room to experiment. On the gliding 12-minute opener "Tardis Cymbals," the confident way Cavern of Anti-Matter hold and morph a motorik groove harks back to Gane and Dilworth's previous project, but the track's taut dynamism feels uniquely theirs. From there, the band switches modes with ease, moving from "Blowing My Nose Under Close Observation"'s electro flirtations to "Insect Fear"'s more whimsical territory, a reminder that Cavern of Anti-Matter's cerebral sense of humor doesn't detract from their music's momentum. Meanwhile, the chiming beauty of "Echolalia" and the aptly named "Melody in High Feedback Tones" prove that melodic experiments are just as vital to their approach as the adventurous rhythms and textures on "Hi-Hats Bring the Hiss" and "Void Beat." The band's interplay sounds so complete on its own that "Liquid Gate," a collaboration with Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, sounds almost like an intrusion, or like one of the songs from Fading Frontier (which featured contributions from Gane) accidentally teleported here. On the other hand, Sonic Boom's proclamations on "Planetary Folklore" sound like they're coming from the galaxy itself. By the time the meditative, strings-driven "Zone Null" brings Void Beats/Invocation Trex to a close, it feels like the end of a journey that reveals Cavern of Anti-Matter as a playful yet profound group capable of touching on the cosmic as well as kosmiche. ~ Heather Phares