So really, anyone who’s read a few of the reviews I’ve written already knows that I’m going to like this EP. It verges on retro, yes, but glorifying one of my favourite eras well is obviously a good move. We’re in early 90s shoegaze territory here, but not as pastiche, more as distinct influence.
Some fizzing static gets us moving, a nod to the technology that The Lava Experiments has at his disposal, which is where he mostly differs from the guitar dominated originators of the field. Over the next 25 minutes, various washes of synth, guitar, bass, vocals and processing build and fall expertly. A key to succeeding with this kind of music is to have some decent melodies in order to keep things from just becoming pretty walls of sound, and Fraser Rowan, who is The Lava Experiments, can concoct these as instrumental motifs or as vocal lines. Reverb is used, as can be expected, but never as a lazy default, and it is constantly contrasted with flows of close-up static, or the sounds of acoustic instruments in a small room. The highlight track of the EP is undoubtedly ‘Organise The Box’, which builds from plaintive piano and glitch into a morose, epic minor key synth dirge.
The closest touchstone I can think of would be something like Underlapper, with their building and sustained atmosphere, and especially in the use of vocals. Unlike that group, however, The Lava Experiment’s main weakness is a reliance on fairly insipid drum programming – where drum machines seem to just make a beat, trying to sound vaguely like real drums. I’d much prefer to hear either real drums and the humanness of their groove or the exploration of the sonic possibilities of synthetic percussion, as is done on the intro to ‘Check The Eye’ before it settles back into generic-ness midway through.
Having said that, though, it’s only a small element of everything that The Lava Experiment is doing. I’m enjoying the EP a great deal and will definitely be looking out for the second and third installments of this promised trilogy.
Adrian Elmer
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