Cove
The Thing
UK Extreme
Ultimate Cassette
(2015)
Sharing its title with name of the Swedish/Norwegian jazz-rock
group could almost be no accident. This,
Cove's posthumous fourth album cuts a swathe through post-rock, doom, dirge,
space-rock and free improv with the verve and brutality of the group The Thing,
only without any of that fancy brass getting in the way. In terms of free playing, there’s a precedent
in Cove’s history; the improvisation on The
Thing is reminiscent of drummer Mark Davidson’s improvised project Exit
Strategy. Bassist Tony Mountford doubles
up on synthesisers which lends a spacey, proggy feel to what could otherwise be
mostly straight-ahead post-rock material.
This is a big departure, in terms of production alone, from their first
album proper; 2004’s HiWatt, where guitarist
DCW Briggs led with a grinding, metronomic swing. Cove cite the opening scenes of John Boorman’s
film Zardos, which explains the
apocalyptic qualities of their music, and Grateful Dead’s Anthem of The Sun as inspiration, although there is equally an
undercurrent louche Duophonic-like feel probably courtesy of the influence of Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay, who was responsible for recording the album.
The Thing is
varied yet focussed; Globules features an acoustic guitar riff which results in
a kind of Acid Mothers Temple unplugged vibe, Ambient Circuits and Ghosts Of
Orbits mine musical themes common to a lot of Cove’s previous output, and the title
track is of an epic drone/industrial persuasion - it heaves under the
weight of experimentation and improvisation; ropes and notes taut and at the
point of snapping; an analogy appropriate to the album as a whole, perhaps...
On a personal note, it is not without some sadness that I
note Cove’s demise. I organised a couple
of shows for them in Brighton around 2004/5 with Projections and the WOW, as
part of a scene that also included Lords, Charlottefield, Jason & The Astronauts,
Joeyfat, Planquez and Hey Colossus, most of whom are also now defunct, (with
the exception of Hey Colossus who these days are going from strength to
strength). In terms of Cove’s sound,
they may have sounded cleaner than most doom bands, more dynamic than most
drone bands, more precise than most post-hardcore bands, more powerful than
most post-rock bands, and with their arrangements peppered with more “free”
intervals than anyone else dared, and all that just made them all the more
unique. Later tracks like Marsh Of Decay
from Projected pointed out their Slint
and other American post-whatever influences, but there remained something truly
original in their exploration of the form.
From their emergence in the early 2000’s from Tunbridge
Well’s Forum-based scene, through their output of three albums on Unlabel and
their miscellaneous product on labels like jonsonfamily, Noisestar, Dead Art
Collective, Convoy and Fat Sandwich, (all in regrettably small editions), and
their involvement in London’s Silver Rocket scene, Cove live became one of the
most dependably high quality propositions in the UK in my opinion, despite
their relative, and undeserved, obscurity. Certainly, 2013’s Projected cassette featured probably the most well-rounded
song-based material, while my personal favourites are For Absent Companions; the split 7” with Charlottefield from 2003,
and the Untitled 7” from 2001. It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that I
listen to the music on The Thing as
it seems it may be the last we’ll hear of one of the greatest uk power trios of
the last decade. Choose the download version
or a limited run cassette, or packages with cassette and t-shirt or cassette,
t-shirt and poster.
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