CAVE as masters of groovy repetition reminiscent of krautrock in its purest form? Something has apparently changed since the band from Chicago released Psychic Summer in 2009, because that album prides itself on a kind of overt psychedelia that isn’t necessarily gleaned from hours and hours of a single rhythm sending your mind into a hypnotic tailspin. Keyboardist Rotten Milk did leave the band prior to the recording and release of Threace in 2013, and it’s hard to deny the fact that his prior contributions added a degree a variation to the music, which possibly offended those who wanted to ride a single, deceptively intricate wave off into the purple sunset. There’s seemingly less in the way of variation now, but to paraphrase my colleague and ecstatic spelunker, Mukqs, his review, holy shit, there’s jelly in this otherwise-normal-looking doughnut!
Either way, the current pastry news is this: CAVE are releasing a new album called Allways on October 19, and the Drag City label is glad to be sponsoring the assured quintet’s first full-length in five years. You can listen to the track “San’ Yago” below, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say we’ve entered another stage of CAVE evolution. The time spent recording in Chile clearly had an influence, despite the video’s predominantly Chicago-based highlights. It’s all very exotic and confusing at the same time! The music of CAVE assumes anything and everything!
Oh yeah, and you can of course pre-order Allways ALL THE WAYS right here.
Allways tracklisting:
01. The Juan
02. San’ Yago
03. Aharaha
04. Dusty
05. Beaux
06. ShaSha