Chvad SB’s latest is five tracks in five minutes and it’s flat out not as good or interesting as 2014’s Cricket’s Were the Compass.

‘Followed By One’ has a lonely, lost, open feel; ‘Untouchable One’ throbs with sinister, alien intrigue; ‘Four’ is a dark, backwards ocean; ‘Three’ holds a sense of vague menace, like a deserted truck stop at four in the morning; and ‘Missing Sprout’ is reverb, delay, pedals and a guitar. They’re actually all reverb, delay, pedals and a guitar – a fact I have no real issue with, it’s just that, for an artist who’s been creating soundscapes for the past two decades, I suppose I had expected something more interesting. It’s not the duration, it’s the lack of depth.

I can only assume, based on the title (“aliquot” is defined as “a portion of a larger whole”) that these five tracks/minutes are the initial phase of something greater and, hopefully, more nuanced. As it stands, Outside the Shadow of an Aliquot Tree is too paltry a taste of a meal I’m not really sure I want to eat.

Review by; paul_guyet
Review originally published here:
http://soundblab.com/reviews/albums/7096-chvad-sb-outside-the-shadow-of-an-aliquot-tree