MV & EE with the Bummer Road — Green Blues
Over the past few years, MV & EE (Matt Valentine and Erika Elder) have released a slew of CDR’s and LP’s in microscopic editions, mostly on their own label, Child of Microtones. Aside from last year’s sprawling double LP/CD Mother of Thousands (Time-Lag), their recordings are not usually distributed to the general public.
Green Blues is one of the first recordings released by Thurston Moore’s newly resurrected Ecstatic Peace label, and this release should be relatively easy to find. It’s without a doubt MV & EE’s most direct, structured recording to this point, though there’s little chance that Green Blues is going to top the charts any time soon. That’s because even at their most accessible there’s a wayward quality to their music which may be difficult for the uninitiated to grasp.
Matt Valentine has described the band in the past as "free-folk", though that term is misleading in its simplicity. The music does have elements of folk at its most oblique, as well as psychedelic rock, blues, free jazz, and raga. There’s an outsider feel to these pieces, giving the impression that this music is created in a vacuum, without outside influence or adherence to any current trends. For that reason, MV & EE and the Bummer Road’s music sounds as if it could have been created either thirty years ago, or yesterday.
Matt Valentine’s vocal style is for most an acquired taste. He sings in a creaky falsetto, and sounds a bit like Neil Young at his most wasted. Erika Elder’s vocals are more melodic, but deadpan. This combination somehow makes perfect sense when paired with their abstract tunes.
MV & EE are joined on Green Blues by the Bummer Road, a group which includes several members of their previous band, the Tower Recordings. A major part of their signature sound are "harp environments" created by Mo’ Jiggs. The heavily reverbed harmonica provides a rural atmosphere which is overlaid by multitudes of stringed instruments, percussion, flutes, mellotron and vocals.
Part of what makes this album a little bit more straight forward than their previous work is the album opener East Mountain Joint, a catchy road song with an upbeat melody and free wheeling lyrics, which includes J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) on mellotron.
While the rest of the album is not as structured as the first track, it’s a little bit more grounded than the usual Bummer Road album. Overdubbing and studio trickery are evident. This is a change, since most of their previous output sounds like it was recorded live, with a minimum of overdubs. Also, the songs are anchored on riffs, and have a beginning, middle and end. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of psychedelic weirdness to be found. It’s just that it’s a tad more controlled than their CDR recordings.
The last two songs, Grassthighs, and the eighteen minute Solar Hill, are a little closer to some of the Bummer Road’s earlier output. They take an at times multi-directional approach. There’s a skeletal framework and each musician is free to explore their own direction, kind of like free-jazz (hence the term "free-folk").
Most of these songs have peaks and valleys. Some moments are intense, and others are droney and pastoral. The recordings have a warm, organic feel, which the disc’s artwork reflects perfectly. It shows the band in a secluded, heavily forested setting, sunlight beaming down.