Cove - Hi-Watt - CD (2004)

Labels: Jonson Family
Review by: Alex Deller

Like kids making music under their Spiderman duvets by torchlight or within the confines of cushion forts in the living room, there’s a mischievous sense of play about Cove’s work that endears them to the listener as they shuffle between measured angles and square roots for Shipping News-esque math squalls and full-blown rocking fuzz-outs. Whether they’re playing at noisy buggers or sounding like they’re tinkering with clock springs, a lo-fi aesthetic prevails and prevents this band from sounding like a bunch of arty wiseacres smugly distilling the sweat from Albini’s balls and presenting it in diluted form as something wild and monumental. What happens instead is music that sounds slight, faltering and uncertain but all the better for it, helping Cove rise above the humdrum and flesh out the ranks of UK indie/post rock bands doing something that’s both interesting and eminently fun to listen to.