The mystique surrounding the making of this record is enough to make one take the great music on it for granted. This Italian quartet initiated a courtship with Young God's Michael Gira by sending him bizarrely packaged CDRs with varying contents, thus enabling Gira to acquaint himself with the band's sound and range. For what purpose was unknown to him at the time. Following a series of these discs, Gira received a final package that included a round-trip flight to Italy and a sum of money -- the producer was invited to work on the band's record. Curiosity aroused, Gira obliged. For three weeks he recorded the band and edited the results without actually seeing the band; the band, a pair of engineers, and the producer communicated through a translator as a screen divided them. The result? Much like Ulan Bator's Ego: Echo, another record overseen and released by Gira, Rever is an excellent LP that carries in the tradition of Gira's own Swans and Sonic Youth without making overt references to the past. It sounds like most of the record derived from extended jamming sessions that were chiseled into coherent pieces and then shape-shifted into a superb sequence for maximum effect. Shortly after most of the guitar riffs are found, they're abandoned or temporarily tucked away in favor of lulling drones, pendulum-like instrumental segues, chanted/whispered vocals, and the occasional blurt of accordion and/or trumpet. Just as you find yourself sliding down trap chutes made from densely sculpted dins of moaning guitars and ugly textures, delicately brushed melodies come along and whisk you out. If you're troubled by the retrograde state of guitar-based music, Rever (and any other Young God release) warrants your attention. This is a nudge forward. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
M**N
Great ethereal rock album by underrated French band
Parts of this album are so weird, surreal and dreamy that its almost hard to believe something like this actually exists. It really truly sounds like its from out of this world. I bought the album for the song "Radial" but fell in love with basically the whole album. Its haunting and mysterious yet soothing and moving. These guys really put their heart and soul into this album, and I wish they were getting more recognition for it. I'm a huge fan of avante-garde and experimental music---and this is quite possibly the epitome of French experimental rock music---so if you dig music that blazes its own brave trail without concern for society's constraints, hopefully this will please you as much as it pleased me.
G**R
Larsen: Rever
Larsen, from what I've heard, is an Italian band that corresponded with Michael Gira, of Swans and Angels of Light fame, for sometime before inviting him to their home country to record and produce this album. There is a little legend, that seems to be a little too ironic for me to accept at face value, that this band has concealed their identity from everyone, including Gira, and during the recording session they performed behind a screen to prevent themselves from being seen. Then there's some stuff about rituals, the occult and spoonfuls of dirt sent with their demo tapes, a lot of interesting information that can be found out on the Young God Record's web site.As for the music itself, it's mostly instrumental, a-la Sonic Youth style dissonance, and soundscapes with deep, distorted base rumbles. The accordion creates a nice harmonic backdrop, and interspersed with the instrumentals are the occasional vocals, Gregorian-monk like chants, or a woman repeating words, coldly, over and over, in Italian. It appears that various recording sessions were spliced together, and the unexpected leaps in song structure are the most compelling point in the album. Over-all, decent experimental-progressive rock. Just about everything on Young God Records is worth looking into for fans of this style of music.
J**S
so good & scary
i'm not sure that i believe all the mysterious stories surrounding this Italian experimental band; but after hearing the Rever album...i want to believe! these songs are so mysterious and ominous that i can't help but have images of the band conducting strange little rituals while playing. Larsen is the answer to the questtion: what would it sound like if Sonic Youth was the house band on the island that The Wicker Man movie takes place? i especially like the way this album was recorded, the eerie whispered vocals are very closely mic'ed, giving the impression that these strange words are being spoken directly in your ear. and the buildup of chanting and droning gives it a very creepy, unsettling appeal.
