Suburban
Speed

by: Jonathan Greer

Cavern of Anti-Matter's public profile has been almost non-existent up until now. A double album Blood Drums came and went without much fuss, and following a much-lauded appearance at Deerhunter's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in 2013, two other singles failed to catch much attention. In many ways all of that feels like a rehearsal for this release, especially as the end product here is an audacious triple album, which somehow manages to feel like a debut.

If you don't already know, Cavern of Anti-Matter are a trio comprising of Stereolab co-founder Tim Gane, Holger Zapf on synths and original 'Lab drummer Joe Dilworth (also of Th' Faith Healers and many more, and in his other job as a photographer he was responsible for press shots of all your favourite bands of the 90s).

Given the personnel and that this is the first release on Stereolab's label for quite some time, it is hard to distance it from Gane's previous group. However, Cavern have embedded themselves more deeply within the worlds of Krautrock and electronica than Stereolab did, or indeed would have done in the future. This record is a bigger leap for the musicians than it would have been if it was simply another Stereolab record.

One difference is that this album is a mostly instrumental take on classic motorik and techno beats, with some lengthy jams and workouts sitting well beside prettier pieces. It's certainly not a case of Stereolab without the singer, as the one conventional vocal performance from Deerhunter's Bradford Cox on 'Liquid Gate' sticks out a bit in the middle of the instrumental bliss-outs. It's a straight forward rock vocal although his delivery reminds me more of Destroyer than Deerhunter this time.

The other vocal performance 'Planetary Folklore' also stands out but for different reasons, as it is a spoken word effort from Sonic Boom, where he intones some theories about the "plastic arts" in the style of Spacemen 3's classic 'How Does it Feel'. It fits better within the album, maybe because a dubby version of opening track 'Tardis Cymbals' is bubbling away as the underscore.

So Void Beats/ Invocation Trex may have ticked lots of the "musical good taste" boxes but is there anything new here, or is it simply a parade of influences gleaned from thumbing the racks in the sections marked 70s Krautrock and 90s electronica? Thankfully there is plenty here to enjoy and as I hinted at earlier, this is a jump away from what could have been "Stereolab 2.0". In fact they sound more like a band who have taken Stereolab as an influence rather than a band who used to be in them.

'Echolalia' has the jazzy chords associated with Gane's songwriting but the rhythms have more of an electronic bounce to them. This is brought to a head on 'Hi-hats bring the hiss' which is almost a piece of banging techno, albeit in a more minimalist way.

Throughout the album this pattern emerges - the strong and often pretty melodies which Tim Gane is known for join really well to some repetitive rhythms. 'Melody in high feedback tones' is an absolute highlight, with its gorgeous floating melody, as is 'Pantechnicon'. 'Blowing my nose under close observation' is a bubbling house-jam and 'Insect Fear' is another pulsating one this time driven along by a garage-rock organ riff.

'Void Beat' has more manic electronics, whilst 'Black glass actions' is a subdued reflective piece, with a Kraftwerk-esque melody. For all the beats and lush arrangements it is the melodies which stay with you and make this album into one of the most memorable to be released thus far in 2016. Appropriately it closes with 'Zone null' which is a delicate little sci-fi tune with no beats, just a music box melody and underscore. Six sides of vinyl and not a moment wasted, it's fair to say Cavern Of Anti-Matter have finally made their mark.