Polvo (Noisy Art Rock)

Polvo is a band from Chapel Hill (North Carolina) formed in 1990 and led by Eddie Watkins (drums), Ash Bowie (vocals) and Dave Brylawski (guitar). Polvo is almost certainly one of the least known bands in this whole anachronique section. There are many reasons for that, we will come back to them, but they are certainly not to be found in the band’s music.

To date, Polvo has released 6 studio albums, the latest in 2013. But how can one not acknowledge that Cor-Crane Secret (1992) and Today’s Active Lifestyles (1993) stand well above the rest. Polvo has often been criticised for being too complex a band, with melodies not stripped back enough. The criticism is sometimes justified. But these first two albums elevated the Art Rock style like very few albums in history have. These two albums, contemporaries of Built to Spill, Pavement, Sonic Youth and many more, fully deserve their place among all those bands recognised as legendary.

Cor-Crane Secret is the band’s first album. Made up of 11 tracks, it already has the sound that would forge the Polvo myth. This album came out the same year as Pavement’s Slanted & Enchanted and Sonic Youth’s Dirty. So inevitably, it was hard to win a place in the hearts of lovers of the underground scene of the time. Surprisingly, the band’s first album track, “Vibracobra“, is also its most accessible. Do not expect a soothing Pop ballad, Polvo still delivers a very hazy creation in which Ash Bowie’s voice is strangely encoded. The second track, “Kalgon“, plunges us into the icy water of a frozen lake. Polvo holds our head under the water. The dialogue between drums and guitar truly takes hold. Down with all structure, Polvo does the purest Art Rock. Next comes “Bend Or Break“, where the three-guitar arrangement is of rare power. This track is quite emblematic of the wholly unique energy the best music of the nineties gave off. It is very dark, and Polvo’s saturation elevates a post-apocalyptic melody. Above all, the last minute is breathtaking. Yes, “Bend Or Break” is one of the very best tracks in Polvo’s history.

Then comes another very dissonant track with “Can I Ride“, ultimately quite close to Slint’s world. This track confirms that Polvo is first and foremost an experimental music band. “Sense of It” slows the tempo a little to prepare for the arrival of “Ox Scapula“. Behind its air of an anti-vampire magic spell, this track is so much in the spirit of Sonic Youth that you would swear you heard Thurston Moore’s guitar. And then, sometimes, Polvo delivers a bass sound similar to Nirvana’s. The intro of “Channel Changer” is a very good example. But just to muddy the waters a little more, Polvo then goes industrial with “In The Hand, In The Sieve“, as if driven by an absolute will to stop its listener from settling into the slightest continuity. The album closes with the very good combo “Well Is Deep” / “Duped“. On the whole there are very few vocals, which gives Cor-Crane Secret a very cold feel. The tracks on this album are very complete and, once you have made them your own, turn out to be terribly addictive. What songwriting!

Today’s Active Lifestyles is a less aggressive album, but just as experimental, as shown by “Thermal Treasure“, its rather majestic opener. No doubt about Polvo’s desire to continue in the Art Rock vein. “Thermal Treasure” changes rhythm more than ten times, the guitar alternates between fuzz and grungy dissonance. Already quite a slap. Immediately afterwards, it is “Lazy Comet”’s turn to hurl so many riffs at our heads that we end up dizzy. As on

Cor-Crane Secret, the first three tracks on this LP are flawless. So “My Kimono” takes care of completing the trio. Polvo is a very inventive band and the guitar often acts as the spearhead, a mirror of all its creativity. “My Kimono” is a track so unstructured that you end up cherishing the slightest repetitive riff.

One question then arises. What do more than 7 minutes of Polvo sound like? A firework display, a multicoloured bouquet, a psychedelic odyssey? A bit of all three. “Stinger (Five Wigs)” is a rather arid track that once again recalls Slint’s wanderings. Polvo then indulges in a Rolling Stones analogy with “Time Isn’t On My Side“. A caustic counterpart to the sixties hit “Time Is On My Side“, Polvo seems to take pleasure in creating the unruly version of every melody. Ahhh, the eternal repeat offenders… Hard not to have understood by now that the band will spare us nothing, so “Action Vs. Vibe” and “Gemini Cup” close this record on a backdrop of stocky music without quite managing to shock us. In the end, Today’s Active Lifestyles often brings to mind the experimental version of Built to Spill’s Keep It Like A Secret.

These two Polvo albums are among the first to have introduced the public to Math Rock. Today it is hard to call yourself a lover of underground music without agreeing to enter the anarchic music of this outfit. This Holy Grail of collectible vinyl diggers is the kind of band that has done and will keep doing the scene good, because these guys do not care about conventions, a bit like Robert Pollard. And they are the ones who ultimately move rock ’n’ roll science forward. So, Polvo, the Prokofiev of independent Rock?

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