Matt Stevens’ third album Relic is a refreshing listen for this reviewer, being an album that I knew nothing about prior to my first play. I hadn’t heard his previous works, or his output with the band The Fierce and the Dead. Being a slightly judgemental music listener (I try not to be, but I know I am) I may not have given it a try had I known about his support gigs with Barclay James Harvest and Fish prior to listening to the album. However, I listened to the album with an open mind and I’m glad that I did as it is a bit of a gem, and a genuinely different musical experience.
The album does have some obvious influences, Radiohead, prog rock, 1990s heavy metal and celtic folk all rear their heads over the ten tracks. However, it is a surprisingly cohesive album for all that, and has an identity and individuality that reflects Stevens himself as much as his inspirations.
It is very much a guitar album, and he multi-tracks and loops his guitar parts to great effect, but he crucially avoids peppering the album with too much trickery and soloing. In fact his playing is remarkably restrained, although a great amount of skill is on show here it isn’t until the second to last track, the heavy metal assault of ‘Frost’, that he lets self-indulgence get the better of him and by that time you don’t mind.
It is a uniformly good album, and one that is remarkably free of flab (especially considering his prog influences) but there are a couple of tracks that stand out. ‘Rusty’ brilliantly mixes Spanish guitar, folk fiddle and some impressive percussion before the next track ’20 GOTO 10′ offers something much more sparse and self-consciously modern, but with equal skill. This track brought to mind the work of Japanese left-field pop performers with the distorted computer sounds building to expansive guitars.
It is a slightly jarring album, something I quite enjoy but not something that makes for a an easy relaxing listen. There are also some production issues on a few of the tracks, they felt a bit cold and hard where a warmer production would have suited them better. These are minor criticisms though and don’t really detract from what is a really interesting and unusual album.
8/10
By Dorian Rogers
You can pick the album up (in physical or digital form) by going to Matt Stevens’ Bandcamp page.
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