Polvo Celebrate the New Dark Age

So… this is what Polvo sound like? Nosediving shoegaze pedal rawk that sounds like Swirles doing self-parody stand-up and a super emo approach to songwriting? Such a thing could surely only be sustained for as long as an EP, which is good because I am indeed listening to one of those things, by them, called ‘Celebrate the New Dark Age’.

When people call things a sprawl I never know what they really mean, but let’s call “Fractured” that. It switches in and out of its chosen genres and then changes the melody into one sweeter and less angular in its dying moments. As such, it sprawls -- it tries to give itself a longer life, then realises it’s not long for this world and dies. Cool. People liked to talk about Polvo introducing drone and a general pontificating weirdness to noise rawk, and though it’s not noticeable on this EP, you can hear them waiting, changing and rerouting on the go -- “City Structure” calms down in its middle and then subtly brings itself back around. “Tragic Carpet Ride” sees Ash Bowie sorta just keep going with lyrical ideas, while a meek, half-mathed riff crawls out the back of “Every Holy Shroud”.

It’s great stuff because it’s kinda listless -- less interventionist than the shouty, jump-off-the-riff noise rock you’re used to, but no less compelling. This is Robin reporting from… the ‘90s.