Music > Album Reviews

Viv Albertine // Flesh EP

15/05/13

The repetition on this EP is driving me insane. It baffles me that on a four track EP, you would choose four tracks that essentially sound the same; the songs mostly consist of one short riff over and over and over. Having said that, my insanity and probably your insanity fits well with Viv, cos she is one crazy eccentric. Soft and cutesy, but drenched with darkness, her vocal parts sound as if she made them up on the spot in a mental jam session with some witches and some bondage. The guitar parts suit this chaos brilliantly. The twangly and clean serrated riffs are reminiscent of The Velvet Underground and drone perfectly under Viv’s voice, slithering atonally to intoxicating depths. Her amazing punk heritage as songwriter with The Slits gives the EP unsaid credibility, and offbeat rhythms and ska fuelled bass lines summon her former incarnation to the present. It makes total sense that this EP is released on Ecstatic Peace, Thurston Moore’s label, mimicking quieter Sonic Youth moments (maybe The Diamond Sea), and Viv’s voice sounding almost identical to Kim Gordon’s. However, just as you start to get into it, she goes and says a line like "and I loved Mark Bolan because of all his come” in her leaping vocal contours, and all the insanity returns.

6/10 Maxie Gedge