A four-track release is not often considered a substantial outing, but with Brock Van Wey in signature form it is something of an event; almost an hour and a half of extraordinarily engaging and well balanced sound design. A History Of Distance finds the artist in a melodic mode, with the familiar pin wheeling vocal loops, subterranean bass and sparse kicks locking into a dynamic, cohesive and cathartic pattern.
Hard to pinpoint what makes this particular release so rewarding, other than it feeling like a significant victory against a particularly confronting challenge. In fact, that may be the best way to summarize a large part of bvdub’ recorded output: a musical representation of resilient strength under crushing pressure, almost a musical deconstruction of some of the more extreme forms of metal.
Opening track “Everything Between You and Me’ is a brilliant example of this; the track shifts gears a number of times, with overlapping movements and themes, but the wide and (at times) suffocating layering would trigger an emotional response in even the hardened opponent. Each track is evenly weighted at between the fifteen to twenty minute mark, and despite the length it is very hard to spot any filler.
An n5MD release is usually an indicator of high quality. This is no exception.
Charles Sage
