SØLVE – The Negative
I know I’ve said I will never sleep with anyone who has abdominal squares, but they sure do look pretty don’t they? Don’t worry. I’m not changing my mind on that — too many bad sexual encounters with guys with abs for me to renege. But they’re fun to look at, like little porcelain dolls or antique figurines that are just too precious to play with everyday.
Gawking at the cover art aside, I’ve been listening to SØLVE’s album The Negative a lot at work today. In the low volume, it’s this engrossing mix of beats and drones with some vocals barely audible that can make for some good background.
As I got home and actually listened to it at a proper volume, the immensity of it hit me. It opens with a soundscape which envisions walking around at night in a desolated world. “Out of the darkness into the fire,” Brant Showers sings in repetition during the opening song “The Negative (Perspective 1)” as the soundscape changes into a slow driving beat that illuminates the shadows. “What Remains” follows with a driving chase accompanying the chant “Eat you alive, I will eat you alive.” If only…
As you listen through this album, you hear these intricate sounds and beats mixed with repetitive almost-chanting vocals. On his Bandcamp, Showers writes his mission statement for SØLVE:
“SØLVE serves to express concepts of self-reflection and spiritual conflict/exploration through alchemical and hermetic ritualism. The process of breaking down to rebuild is an extremely personal and often discouraging path towards addressing faults and limitations, and digging deep within can often reveal the aspects of ourselves that we are not always prepared to discover.”We can see where he’s trying to get to, and it’s pretty arousing to hear his journey. This is music that gets me hard and keeps me hard. I don’t know about the alchemical and hermetical, but there is something a bit magickal brewing for me in here. “Let the light divide you and breathe it into me,” Showers sings on “The Negative (Perspective 3).” See? Keeps me hard. It’s not as subtle and esoteric as COIL, especially the later-years COIL, but sometimes you need something a bit more direct. Sometimes you need just need a good hard fuck rather than foreplay and teasing.
Discover more from JimmyBramlett Dot Com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
