Chuter is a one man band featuring the music of Hampshire England’s Jack Chuter. Chuter has released a few EPs and ‘Regenerative’ is his latest and will appeal foremost to those who enjoy grooving to a heavy wall of droning guitar noise. Oh look, my shoes!
Chuter creates very dense dreamy soundscapes with his music. Despite the massive guitar bombast the songs also possess a strong ethereal quality that implores you to close your eyes and drift along to their monstrous drone. This is the power of ‘shoegaze’. It can evoke an introspective disconnect for a few minutes as your mind tries to wrap itself around the dynamic soundscape. Jack’s vocals act like an instrument as they harmonize along to the melody in a controlled understated manner. At times Chuter reminds me of Godflesh; granted it would be a subdued somewhat serene Godflesh, if you can imagine such a thing…
The five song EP starts off with the track ‘Pilot’. About 30 seconds into the track the thunderous guitar bomb is dropped and pounds for most of the remaining five plus minutes. There is some cleaver vocal layering on this song that stood out to me. ‘Pilot’ slows down mid-track only to rebuild the fiery assault before its final fade. A strong opening track for the EP.
Next ‘Regenerative’ hits you with ‘Cycle’ another six minute auditory flagellation. ‘Cycle’ cuts into its catchy riff from the beginning and weaves itself all around it. A solid melodic track with a generous helping of grind. The third track, which is ironically entitled ‘Four Zero’ felt somewhat drab compared to the first two songs on this EP. Lacking the punch of the opener or the catchy melody of ‘Cycle’.
I was a little surprised when I first heard the curiously slow vocal-less track ‘Misplaced’. Perhaps something is implied by the song title? The Chuter wall of noise is ‘misplaced’ and is ‘replaced’ with a lighter stripped away guitar sound which I found quite refreshing. It provides a striking contrast to the sound of the rest of the EP and shows another dimension to Chuter. The final song on the EP is a remix of ‘Steady’ which is off Chuter‘s ‘Glisten Amber Plains’ EP. The remix adds a grittier more consistent drum beat with a slick powerful drone. It’s fascinating to hear musicians update a track. Certainly songs should be allowed to evolve. I wish more artists would revisit their material. Playing the same song over and over for years must make them think of ways to alter it? It is certainly a regenerative ending to the EP.
I found it difficult to get into this EP initially. At first I just couldn’t sink my musical teeth into it. However, after a few listens the depth of tracks and quality of the production revealed some remarkable musical substance. There is a lot going on beneath the wall of sound worthy of investigation. ‘Regenerative’ is an impressive accomplishment especially for one musician. I recommend giving this EP a few listens and I’d be surprised if you don’t get swept away by its ambient grindy goodness.
Released August 13th on Blindsight Records.
Posted by Dave Guzda.
