Quivver follows up his fantastic ‘Wait For You’ EP on Selador with another of the label’s best releases to date, ‘Brand New Medicine’, featuring four excellent new cuts.
It’s been four years to the day since Dave Seaman announced that he was going to be launching a new record label with Steve Parry, and Selador has really lived up to the promises, releasing much of the best music over the last few years and hitting its 50th release-milestone in style earlier in 2016. Quivver’s ‘Wait For You’ was a real highlight for the label, with ‘Everything Remains the Same’ proving to be one of the standout tracks of Quivver’s career IMO. As a followup, ‘Brand New Medicine’ doesn’t disappoint. The title track works retro vocal samples and catchy, rippling synths over crisp percussion and a shifting wall of bass, while Quivver’s own vocals add further warmth and personality. ‘Lights Down Pt. 1’ is my pick of the four offerings, and a fitting sequel to ‘Everything Remains the Same’. It’s just brutal, with biting percussion, a swaggering bassline, a hypnotic, industrial-strength hook that rises out of the morass periodically, and booming pitched-down vocal samples. Thrilling, essential stuff from Quivver. ‘Pt 2’ doesn’t hit the spot quite so squarely for me, but it’s packed with richer percussion, two heavy bass parts, and sinister, tension-filled build-ups, and these conspire to produce a churning, dark ride that’s destined to do a lot of damage. Finally, we have ‘I Remember U’, which sees Quivver back in lighter mood, with some cool bass work and whispered vocals setting the stage for a twisted, techy workout.
Wonderful music from Quivver here as ever – there’s nothing as emotionally hefty as his recent ‘Call’ on Sudbeat, but ‘Lights Down Pt. 1’ makes up for that in its own way, and the whole EP is full of the kinds of well-conceived and well-crafted sounds we’ve been associating with Quivver for two decades now. Highly recommended.
