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Now, reincarnated as PVT–because of a legal challenge from another band called Pivot–they're not exactly back with a bang. If anything, Church With No Magic is even more understated than its predecessor: opener Community rumbles slowly into life with an echoing, oscillating synth that sounds like something out of Vangelis' nightmares, while the oddly mechanistic Light Up Bright Fires appears incoherent until the third or fourth listen. Waves and Radiation, on the other hand, ambles a little too far into ambience for its own good, losing its way in a mess of admittedly-pleasant twinkles and hums before petering out rather forgettably.
But let Church... play through a few times and its charms become evident. Circle of Friends and the quite lovely Window pull off the trick of sounding both claustrophobic and expansive at the same time, while the title-track is a riot of barely controlled noise that somehow reconfigures itself at the end like an exploding building viewed in reverse. They can do broody too; the worrying pulse of Crimson Swan feels like Portishead at their most menacing, a terrifying concoction of machine-like percussion and retro/futuro wisps of sound that, when listened to at high volume, feel like they're slicing the very air into chunks.
Granted, Church... employs some of the 80s sounds that have been done to absolute death by every geek with a Korg lying about his student flat, but so embedded are they within PVT's aesthetic and constancy of sound that it's easily forgiven. If their debut sounded like they listened to nothing but the sounds in their heads and tried to recreate them, this sounds like all they've listened to over the past two years is their own records, and subsequently tried to better them. They've succeeded.
--Ben PatashnikFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
utter that word henceforth!) are three young gentlemen
whose Antipodean roots are not immediately evident in
the music they make together.
They are : brothers Richard and Laurence Pike and Dave
Miller. The Pikes manage a considerable array of
instruments between them and Mr Miller contributes
with additional electronics and sonic conjuring.
'Church With No Magic' is their second album and it has
big ambitions and a very grand sound. There is so much
resonance in these ten compositions that one could well
believe that it was recorded in a subterranean cavern.
'Crimson Swan' is a wonderful example of their almost
visionary talent. The opening melancholy dirge builds by
degrees into a blistering anthem. Thundering percussion;
grinding electric guitar; juddering synths and a thousand
voices spinning around deep in the mix like dark angels.
Richard Pike's evocative vocal performance holds the heart
of the arrangement together with majestic aplomb. It's
uplifting and unsettling in equal measure. A stark hymn
for a godless world. Stirring stygian stuff!
There's a different kind of alchemy at work on the brutal
title track 'Church With No Magic'. The spirit of eighties
romanticism is never far away in the echoing vocal part
and epic rhythmic mayhem. It's raw and rough but still
manages to raise our spirits and make us want to dance.
'The Quick Mile' takes some fine staccato beats and spins
them into a complex rhythmic web. Mr Pike does a sterling
job of delivering the elusive melody in a wavering tenor
and spine tingling falsetto. The juddering inconclusive
ending leaves us more than a little anxious but wanting more.
'Waves and Radiation' is a slow piece whose shifting chords
sound like the deep lumbering movement of the Earth's
tectonic plates. The ground is made to tremble ominously
beneath our feet and generates a palpable sense of unease.
'Circle Of Friends' looks back over its shoulder to some of
the seventies finer prog moments. The spirit of Gentle Giant
(especially 'Pantagruel's Nativity') came to mind for more
that a moment in the faintly monastic tones of the haunting
vocal arrangement and quirky time signatures.
Final track 'Only The Wind Can Hear You' brings the project
to a strangely affecting conclusion. The mood of the piece
carries on working inside us way beyond the point at which the
final bar falls away into nothingness leaving us lost and alone.
There is more magic at work here than meets the eye.
Highly Recommended.
It totally did.
If asked to give one word for this album, I would say cosmic. After seeing them perform live, I was amazed that the band only consisted of three band members. I will admit that some of the songs have a slight resemblance to music of the mid-eighties to early nineties but in a way that challenges what is trite and what is beautiful. The echoes, the sometimes dirtiness of the vocals, and the way the sounds progress at just the right moments. It's unexpected and beautiful, and it makes me feel strange yet strong.
I love music that has a very strong sense of vulnerability and it's evident through the lyricism and absolutely stunning yest sparse guitars. The music just feels like a veil covering yet making you face the unexpected.
This is the kind of album that requires attention. It was impossible for me, in those eight hours, to not sit completely still and give it my full attention. And as I listened to it over and over again, I realized that I wouldn't mind listening to it for the next few months on rotation.
If you do get a chance to see this band live, do it. Their music sounds even better live than on an album. That is an extreme compliment.
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