Polvo - Siberia

The reunion album In Prism sounded like Polvo had something to prove, but it be the band's second post-reunion effort that finally quells the armchair quarterbacks that question if they are truly on the same level as their younger selves.

The difference with Siberia is that Polvo once again seem to be working from a looser script in much the same way they did when they were a full-time working/touring/recording unit. The new album strips away the taut arrangements and charted scales found on In Prism in an attempt to recreate the spontaneous discoveries that made their early records such stunners.

So the question goes: is it as stunning as Today's Active Lifestyles or Exploded Drawing? And the obvious answer is "No," but that's not to suggest that it isn't very awesome to have Polvo back, creating, and making recordings that do nothing but add to this band's lofty history.

Siberia is actually the perfect record for discovering Polvo because their wide, angular guitar heroics have been softened somewhat, but the manner in which they achieve it only opens new doors for the band's future. And that is widely exciting for a long-time fan like myself.

Polvo's notoriety is that it's fronted by two wildly innovative pickers in Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Bowie handling most of the vocal duties. While his questionable lyrics and limited vocals always being the band's chief complaints in the past, they are a big part to Siberia's success.

But again, this is a guitar lover's band first and foremost, and it is this instrument that becomes the record's obvious selling point.

The two do a fine job replicating the jagged and buzzy interplay of old during Siberia's opener, "Total Immersion." No wonder old-timers have been calling this one a "return to form." "Blues Is Loss" further examines this and may rank as one of the band's best performances on any album.

Where the band begins exploring uncharted territories is on cuts like "Light, Raking" which features a bright synth during the chorus, ranking the song as the closest thing Polvo has ever done that sounds like a single. It's a great fit, btw.

"Old Maps" gets a nod with its acoustic mood-again, new explorations for a band that made its name from being plugged in to something.

If In Prism was a confirmation that they came back to add a needed exclamation point to their catalog, Siberia becomes the record that makes this post-hiatus ride a link to their past. It's also the record that makes any talk of another hiatus something of a concern, because they've got this band tuned up and sounding as good as it's ever.

Any talk of losing that now would be just as difficult as it was the first time.

Polvo - In Prism

Just when you think that Polvo would forever be delegated to a world of indie-rock obscurity, along comes Explosions In The Sky to remind the rest of you how great this Chapel Hill band was. But leave it to the band themselves to demonstrate how great they continue to be, a full twelve years after releasing their last platter and calling it a day.
To be honest, the stakes were probably higher than you realize. That last effort (Shapes) sounded like a swan song. It was a nice nod to the classic rock origins entertained the band’s Far East indulgences. As alienating as that album was, for me, it was a perfect way for a band who practically strangled nearly every last novel sound a human could make with an electric guitar to end their career.
So I approached In Prism with the required amount of hesitancy and with the drama that is my own personal history with this band. Even with both of these cynical inclinations, I couldn’t be happier with what I’m hearing and with what I’d expect to be a long shelf life of future plays.
There are noticeable differences between Polvo then and now. Most obvious is in terms of fidelity; this is simply the best sounding Polvo album ever released and I’m sure it has everything to do with how technology has afforded everyone the opportunity to glean state-of-the-art recordings for a penance. The band enlisted noted producer Brian Paulson to frame this reunion together, and part of In Prism’s success is definitely the result of his efforts.
But the other is the band themselves, who now take a different approach to their guitar deconstruction. Whereas tone and obtuse chords were the rule of old Polvo, the band now obviously relishes the ability to play together again. Guitarists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski weave in, out, and over each other with such potency that even the most quiet of interplay comes out as mindblowing.
The progressive noodling may be off-putting to some, but it is a logical extension of getting older with the guitar and getting better at navigating it. While Exploded Drawing and Shapes may be exercises in what sounds can be extracted from an amplifier, In Prism shows the band looking at what sounds can come about before the signal even leaves the guitar cable.
This new direction completely plays to the band’s inherent strength, because one of their weaknesses has always been in their lyrics. Not surprisingly, the prose is nothing short of mediocre with more than a few eye-rolling moments (“The peddler arrived on a cold day/with no one to call on/And nowhere to stay”).
You won’t notice them though, because you’ll be too enthralled with the fretwork to keep track of what’s being uttered over the mic. While Shapes may have been a nice way to end Polvo, it is In Prism that renders it obsolete in terms of an exit strategy. More importantly, it’s good enough for me to hope the band never considers leaving again.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.

OCD Chronicles: Polvo - "Beggars Bowl"

Funny how the moment you hear something new from a band that’s been out of commission for a while is the moment when you realized how much you missed them. Such is the case of Polvo, a band I religiously followed during their initial run during the 90’s. Along the way, there was a nicely documented dispute with those Chapel Hill guitar beaters, but there were a whole lot more close-to-idyllic records they released to wade through. It was guitar rock for people who believed there were no wrong notes on a fretboard, no such thing as a bad guitar tone, and nothing quite like creating aural chaos with stringed instruments plugged through an amplifier.
There was a strong contingency of supporters during their career, but not enough to keep the members of Polvo together even when they physically began to move away from each other. After the band’s quiet disbanding their reputation began to slowly quiet like the final moments of a plucked chord.
But thanks to Austin’s Explosions In The Sky, the band reformed after getting a nod and a large gig from their younger brethren.
“You like me! You really like me!” exclaimed Ash Bowie.
And Pitchfork deemed it to be cool.
Actually, a reformation of Polvo is cool. But what’s even cooler is when said band goes beyond a one-off show and makes new music. Which is what they did. Which is what I’ve been spinning repeatedly.
The new song is called “Beggars Bowl” and it’s the first track from their upcoming album In Prism which is scheduled for a September release on the very same label that dished out earlier Polvo awesomeness.
The biggest difference between the new song and older material is the noticeable increase in fidelity and testicles. It’s meaty, and it sounds like the only thing that’s changed in the band’s approach is better recording technology and a penchant for louder volumes.
Fine by me.
Here’s hoping the full-length rocks similar balls.