Album Notes:

Cave is a psychedelic drone band based in Chicago, Illinois consisting of keyboardist Rotten Milk, guitarist/organist Cooper Crain, bassist Dan Browning and drummer Rex McMurry. The band was formed in Columbia, Missouri in 2006, and has released two full-length albums, Psychic Psummer (2009) and Hunt Like Devil/Jamz (2008), and an EP on Drag City Records. Cave played the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2010.

 

 

Cave’s newest album is all movement. The first quick, rhythm-dominated moments of opener “WUJ” propel Neverendless forward. The Chicago psych collective has likely been studying up on krautrock for a long time, and it dives headlong into that territory with a motorik drive, bass grooves, and Neu!-reminiscent synths. It’s a lead track that knows how to build-- beginning with a sparse canvas, over the course of seven minutes it maintains a steady groove while adding and switching out layers. Cave don’t throw away that psych fuzz they do so well-- halfway in, the volume ramps up and the guitars become markedly heavier. That sturdy rhythm remains for the entire seven minutes, but they don’t settle on one sound: They quiet down, increase the volume, add subtle licks, string airy synths above their guttural guitars, and all the while, establish a few central hooks.

 

The band’s bread and butter is creating spacey psych jams; in that sense, Neverendless doesn’t break new ground. What is new is the feeling of focus and structure in their music. While previous albums Psychic Psummer and the Pure Moods EP felt looser, more spontaneous, jammy, and sometimes more erratic or meandering, Neverendless sounds premeditated and perfectly executed. They’ve never been sloppy or careless, but never quite this tight. That structure likely comes from a semi-rigid percussion blueprint and a few well-defined melodies within each song. This is Cave’s first outing as a four-piece, and they find an easy synchronicity with each other-- when they make a change in the groove, everybody falls in line (except maybe the drummer, who maintains the largely unswerving drive). Even spastic guitar solos fall neatly into the confines of the beat.

 

It’s also Cave’s most elegant record to date, mostly because of “On the Rise”, six minutes of warm, slow ebullience. Soft synths mimic wind instruments and pepper a steady beat. They introduce a handful of melodic, joyous guitar hooks. In the only prominent vocal of the album, they chant, “on the rise”, repeatedly, in an almost ceremonial way. The song is a surprising move. On plenty of albums by jammy psych rockers, one go-to vibe is menace—it’s easy to make a largely instrumental song with prominent bass sound big and intimidating. It’s much harder to create something that sounds warm or inviting. They achieve that here without compromising their established feel-- a reverb-drenched, rapid-firing guitar leads the chanting vocals into another calm groove. Neverendless also suggests that they do much better when given time to spread out. The four-minute “Adam Roberts” is the shortest and worst track of the bunch. The bassline is oppressively big and repetitive, followed by an organ that evokes obnoxious circus music. There’s no build, no contrasting elements, and, in the end, nothing to look forward to-- just four minutes of the same semi-obnoxious riff in the middle of the album.

 

Regardless, the record keeps moving. Sometimes it moves with warmth, and sometimes with motorik rhythm. On the 14-minute “This Is the Best” it pushes forward with a droning synth that lies underneath the rest of the song’s layers. Seven minutes in, crunching guitars and buoying bass runs bury that synth. There are swirling, moaning vocals for a moment, and the guitar goes from a quick riff to an evenly spaced trudge. And through those gradual changes in the song’s structure, the percussion holds sway. The drums make one change that stretches out for the song's final minutes, going to a hurried snare. It meets up with some equally hurried synths, which lay out a cluttered feeling of anxiety. And it doesn’t stop for a few minutes. With hit after hit of urgent-sounding synths and drums, Cave never let up or get faster, either. That’s what they do best on Neverendless-- they just keep going. ~ pitchfork.com

 

Track List:

WUJ   [7:16]

This Is the Best   [14:16]

Adam Roberts   [4:13]

On The Rise   [6:14]

OJ   [9:57]

 

The Neverendless LP by Cave is factory-sealed new. It has never been played and has always been kept in its original packaging. The LP is not a promo or cutout. There are no marks or punches of any kind. All our CDs and vinyl are new! If you have any questions or want to see additional photos, just email us.

 

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