It's a strange thing to be faced with an album that you know is full of talented music and that really, if you were a musician, you would get it. As a reviewer (and that old adage of them being failed musicians) it is a difficult place to start. Is it fair to even review the album or should you push yourself and try to find a way through it? Let's have a go and see what happens but all claims are very subjective so take with a possible pinch of salt.
Actually Threace starts to make sense after multiple listens. What at first seems to be a bunch of interminable guitar pieces starts to coalesce into a worthwhile whole. What had passed for sub-funk on ‘Sweaty Fingers’, the opening track, suddenly takes on new flavours as you start to discover the myriad things going on.
Built around Krautrock rhythms, these are very sparse in delivery offering a palette to build on. Unlike Plankton Wat who casts in as much emotion as possible, the sound here is almost sterile giving it a detached feeling. It is difficult to find any empathy with what is happening but then that was what robot music was all about. A cold detachment from the norm, this time it's done with organic instruments rather than electronic.
‘Silver Headband’ has a nice sort of bounce about it that sits in your head for a while but sort of drifts off after a while as nothing new really happens throughout the 8 minutes. ‘Arrows Myth’ is much better with its skittery guitars opening up into a jazz workout which brings to mind some 70's cop thriller.
‘Shikaakwa’ has the strange ignominy of being the shortest track here but seems like the longest for some reason. Maybe it's the meandering jazz that throws you of course but it doesn't sit well with the previous track. Meanwhile ‘Slow Bern’ does what it says on the tin and takes forever and a day to get going. Once it does it's remarkably beautiful and offers a decent change from what has gone before.
So take it or leave it, this album does take repeated listens and it does reward when it's good. A little more warmth might have made all the difference but maybe that was not the intention. Instrumental music is always subjective anyway and it all boils down to a matter of taste. CAVE will no doubt gather plaudits elsewhere but here it just leaves us slightly cold.
