Labels: Exploding In Sound Records
Review by: MH
Ovlov is a band from Connecticut playing 90s shoegazy and grungey post punk under a wall of detuned noise and distortion. Having missed their previous two EPs, they have come out of nowhere for me and this lives up to everything the press release stated where they reference Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and Pavement. I probably hear less of Pavement in here than the other two but there are shades on a couple of tracks. Other reference points would be Hum and Whirr. This trio is made up of three brothers too although a few of the songs have an extra guitarist or bass player to bulk up the sound and Sadie from Speedy Ortiz sings on four of the tracks resulting in some nice harmonies and variation against the backdrop of noise.
From the opening wailing noisy guitar of opener “Grapes” right through to “The Great Alligator” this is top notch stuff. Dinosaur Jr. spring to mind constantly thanks to the guitar sound and the melodic and drawling vocal style which drifts effortlessly over the majority of tracks and there are some great tunes on here. “Nu Punk” is some high-octane driving rock and raises the bar early on. The slower and cleaner “Where’s My Dini?” rides a wonderful riff and reminds me of The Pixies, as does its relative “There’s My Dini!” with its prominent bassline and more deranged vocals towards the end of the album. “Where’s My Dini?” is my current favourite but that may have changed by tomorrow. This is a band blending noise and distortion with sweet melodies to great effect and dragging a bygone 90s sound wailing into 2013. There are not many other bands around at the moment playing such a gloriously noisy racket of this nature. Pretty special.