Souvaris – Souvaris
Sublime swansong from krautrocking Nottingham quartet.
The self-titled third album by fondly regarded Nottingham-based band Souvaris is something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand it’s evidently their most incredible effort to date but also almost certainly their last album. Spawned around the turn of the century by a group of house-sharing musicians and artists united by a love of post-rock, electronic music and krautrock, Souvaris have put in a solid decade of recording and gigging, albeit sporadically of late, but the responsibilities of adulthood, marriage and employment have gradually taken their toll and the quartet are finally shutting up the shop. On the plus side, they leave us with a flawless discography now perfectly rounded by the eponymously titled Souvaris, a surprisingly deft finale which is in every sense of the word a realisation of their shared musical vision. On the down side, Britain will lose one of its finest live bands, pending a few shows towards the end of the year.
Ironically, it’s something of a rejection of the principles which made Souvaris such a ridiculously effective live band which makes the last record also their best overall. Whereas previous efforts were recorded in the setting of a live band committing songs to tape for documentation purposes, Souvaris is the first and only time the band has made an album by laying tracks individually and then using studio manipulation to tie the disparate ends together. Surprisingly, this approach has not affected the overall sense of cohesiveness at all. Indeed, you’d be hard-pushed to tell the difference for the most part, aside from the wonderful sense of space which these recordings seem to have. Whatever means were used to capture this suite of six beautifully composed songs, it’s an approach which has paid dividends. It’s entirely believable that it was a lengthy and difficult process for the band to tailor something so robust from so many different threads but as a listener one is immensely rewarded by the time spent on the making of this marvellous, inspirational album.
Post-rock in the nineties was more or less a hybrid of indie rock with krautrock, specifically lead by bands like Chicago instrumentalists Tortoise, whom Souvaris were vaguely reminiscent of in the past, albeit with far less meandering. Whereas traditionally American post-rock groups lifted liberally from the early days of krautrock, Souvaris has more in common with the 1975-era, which is widely considered as the end of the classic era. A pivotal year which saw the mostly German bands reach the height of their popularity as artists in the west began to name-check and overtly borrow ideas from then relatively obscure bands such as Can and Neu!. Buoyed by their newfound notoriety as originators of the genre, the former produced their most accessible record to date. Landed is an album which takes the highly rhythmic backbone of vintage Can and applies a more glossy, approachable pop sheen which took in everything from glam rock to ambient electronic music and prog rock. At the same point in time, Neu! were a band divided on the excellent Neu! ‘75, which was half pastoral, scenic art-rock and half proto-punk hammering. Michael Rother’s keyboard playing on the first side of the band’s third record was as revolutionary as grimy guitar on the reverse.
Somewhere between these two records is the wonderful Souvaris, an amalgamation of the inventiveness of early krautrock with western pop music, creating something of a unique art-rock sound. The surging crescendos favoured by many post-rock bands are still there but the sense of dynamics is far more varied, with many moods covered over the forty minute duration. At first it’s something of a shock just how bright the production on these songs is but any sense of scepticism melts away seconds into the terrific opener ‘El Puto Amo’. The traditional rhythmic treadmill which characterises most krautrock bands is present but the keyboard playing is louder, more unrepentantly brash and the excellent, tasteful guitar playing is far more discreet for the opening two minutes. Soon the song washes into a simple, down-tempo piano motif before gradually working its way into a triumphant climax which explores every avenue of possibility before abating. The beautiful ‘Pibno’ revolves around a delicate piano figure and serves as the perfect introduction to album centrepiece ‘Millions’, a trademark juggernaut of post-rock inspired instrumental bliss. Here the versatility of the rhythm section is a pivotal aspect of Souvaris’ sound, with Aaron Doyle and Ian Whitehead allowing the guitars of Dan Layton and David Stockwell to showcase their elastic and revelatory playing. Building from gently overlapping, nuanced noodling to abrupt, crunching rock, ‘Millions’ demonstrates all of the aspects which make Souvaris so mesmerisingly huge in the live environment but strips away the distortion in favour of an uncluttered, focused sound.
The following ‘Pleasing’ is exactly that. The backbeat immediately suggests a jazzy, improvisational number built from the dense, deliberately forceful keyboard playing of John Simson but gradually resolves itself into a delightful, borderline baroque piece with circular guitar lines and some extraordinarily joyful piano playing. ‘Mooky’ is a brilliant, bass-heavy number which shifts the mood towards the titanic closer. If it does end up being the last recorded song by Souvaris, the superbly titled ‘Irrereversible’ is an absolutely pitch-perfect end to the band’s discography, replete with a humming, driving rhythm which lends itself perfectly to an artful deconstruction of progressive rock, albeit played at the pitch and tempo of a kratrock song. Mid-song, Stockwell and Layton take turns in laying down some guitar solos which provide something of a narrative within the framework of their band-mates’ playing. As the song continues over nine extraordinary minutes, Simson’s keyboard playing goes into synthetic overload as the rhythm section beats the song to a satisfying conclusion. Fortunately the band will be playing a few shows in the UK when the album is released on the ever reliable Gringo Records towards the end of October. I recommend making sure you catch them if possible because sadly it might be your last opportunity to see one of the great British treasures at the absolute peak of their considerable power. Sad as it may be, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting end to such a brilliant band.
Souvaris – Souvaris
(2011) Gringo Records
