Track: Cavern of Anti-Matter - Void Beats / Invocation

Cavern of Anti-Matter (CAM) are Stereolab mainman Tim Gane, original Stereolab drummer Joe Dilworth and synth meister Holger Zapf. This is their second album and is a collection of mainly instrumentals, bar two of the twelve tracks which feature guest vocals from Bradford Cox (Deerhunter) and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) also as a bit of a bonus we get Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars) twiddling some knobs with a bit of sound processing .

Stereolab fans will be on board with this release as there are definite echos throughout of that lab sound, pulsing rhythms and electronic numbers crossed with guitars. Cavern take what in the wrong hands could turn into cold soulless electronic sounds and beats and breathe life and energy into them with twirling melodies and full textures. From the tripped out bliss of ‘Tardis Cymbals’ to the nightmare scape of ‘Hi-Hats Bring the Hiss’ we get taken on a fantastic 72 minute journey, an Electro Krautrock adventure through the minds of CAM. One minor point is that ‘Liquid gate’ doesn’t really seem fit to the feel of the album, a vocal post rock rock number which is a quality piece in its own right but sounds a bit out of place (think money, Dark Side of The Moon) even though there are other tracks that have a more band sound, this one departs a bit too much from the flow.

What will, I’m sure, keep this one on heavy rotation is the great complexity of the music (which has stopped me from picking any individual track out as a favourite) I found myself going back over the album and finding new delights within the layers every time. ‘void Beats / Invocation’ gets better with every listen, and I’m sure will quickly become classic with some, in the meantime,

here’s a taster….

“Cavern Of Anti-Matter are spectrum addicts, setting up tiny rhythmic cells and expanding on them in certain ways, splitting the melody and stretching out. The melodic movement is much slower due to the lack of words. At the moment, the Cavern sound is more what I want to do” Tim Gane.

3LP Tracklist:

A1. tardis cymbals

B1. blowing my nose under close observation

B2. insect fear

B3. melody in high feedback tones

C1. hi-hats bring the hiss

C2. liquid gate (featuring Bradford Cox)

D1. pantechnicon

D2. black glass actions (featuring Jan St. Werner)

E1. planetary folklore (featuring Sonic Boom)

E2. echolalia

F1. void beat