Souvaris – Souvaris Souvaris
The instrumental art rock quintet from Nottingham, Souvaris, release their third album 'Souvaris Souvaris' whilst into a steady eleven year career. To describe the sound of Souvaris is like trying to recall the number of beers you've had from the previous heavy night out, but think of the likes of the already much missed Manchester prog-rockers Oceansize meeting a rather, bizarrely, somewhat laid back version of F*** Buttons. Dense and intricate are two words that spring to mind immediately. This is a thinking man's album from a thinking man's band that bring together multiple influences into the mix and make it work so well.
On first glance and from the opening seconds of 'El Puto Amo' it sounds a tad puzzling and to the casual listener it could almost be quite alienating, but peel through the layers and you're taken through a forty minute journey that blows the mind from the levels of musical complexity unfolding. The elements of keys and synths play a major part in the production and the composition of Souvaris' sound, but yet they don't overpower the album at all, in fact they add more colour and depth to the already building picture being laid out without being too self-indulgent, as is often so easily associated with the genre of art rock. Here the layers upon layers of off-kilter, Tool-like time sequences and free forming jazzy interludes that are juxtaposed by the sparse but yet sometimes crushing phrases of high level guitar work, add that extra element of bite to the sound.
So much is going on within the structure of this album, but this is the kind of complex and busy sounding record that you can get comfortably lost in and has the rare ability for something different to be taken away with you upon every listen. This won't be everyone's cup of tea but those who persevere and are able give it a couple of listens and get past the initial bizarre uniqueness of it all will find a strange yet beautiful record that folds out in front of you.