Staff Reviews

MV & EE - Barn Nova

Review by Rich Hanscomb

Barn Nova is a concise, awesomely arranged album, succinct in its eight tracks, and surprisingly flab free.»

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mv & ee (matt 'mv' valentine, once the brawn of the tower recordings, and erika 'ee' elder, ceo of heroine celestial agriculture and the mv & ee medicine show) are following their 2008 release drone trailer with their feature-film-for-the-blind "barn nova",. mv & ee aspire to the sort of beautifully rewarding standard in their documented output that sun ra or the grateful dead achieved. it is with ecstatic peace! that their most consistent works have been born and continue reach fans with the golden road, their most constant band. together with doc dunn and mike smith (rickenbacker 4001, vocals) who appeared on drone trailer as well as j mascis (drums, guitar, plate reverb) and woods' jeremy earl (vocal, drums) they take you on the ride now known as barn nova and here they jam. justin pizzoferrato also appears contributing percussion, space echo and aiding once again at the controls. this album was recorded at mv & ee's own home studio "maximum arousal farm" as well as their current local new england rooms of choice, "bank row" (an old mid 1900's bank) and j's home studio "bisquiteen." these kindred spirits share a wealth of ideas including a serious reverence and desire to upgrade/expand the classic-rock idiom. barn nova marks the return of "spectrasound," mv's production technique that places tones dancing all around the stereo sound field: it has to be heard to be believed. this effect is all the more impressive that the majority of it was created recording live, rather than conjured through studio post-production during mixing. especially potent on the a side-ending stomp "summer magic" where erika's economical leads go head-to-head with j%u2019s on a particularly mind-blowing live-in-studio effort; it brings to mind the vibe of "green blues", "mother of thousands" and even an electric "moon jook" with matured songwriting. inspired by the likes of jerry garcia, john cipollina and tom verlaine, matt valentine displays an insatiable appetite to play in various idioms with constant exploration and development. meanwhile, elder's harmony leads recall the glorious twinned guitar lines of canned heat's al wilson & henry vestine at their most potent
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