There’s something so satisfying about a two-piece making as much noise as the groups who run three guitars, two drummers, two violinists deep (think Japandroids, No Age, Double Dagger, etc.). I mean, for an easy example compare the White Stripes to Jack White’s new nine-piece shitshow. This is all a roundabout way of saying Brooklyn by way of West Palm Beach, FL duo SLAVVE might be the newest addition to the argument for quality over quantity.
On latest track “Out of Mind”, singer/guitarist Chuka Chukuma and drummer/everyman Marcos Marchesani (now those are fucking names) build up and beat themselves against an unwieldy skyscraper of emo’d-up sound so huge that it more or less collapses all over them by the time its four-minute reign of terror is up––and I mean that in the best way possible. The track is dense, potent, and played with such abandon, as if the guys are desperately using it to convince themselves that life actually matters, that they actually matter. It is, in a word, SLAVVE's attempt at a cure for consciousness itself. Chukuma’s “I’m fine!” is nothing short of blood curdling; Marchesani’s footwork and little chopped fills are mesmerizing; and the song, very generally, is a shredder and a keeper.
The SLAVVE EP drops June 24 on Bloodmoss Records.
