Le Volume Courbe - Harmony

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label: Poptones
Format: 7"

intro

Believe it or not, Alan McGee, the head of Poptones, has signed a deal with that lunatic genius Kevin Shields again. The last McGee-Shields collaboration (made in 1988 when McGee was heading Creation

Believe it or not, Alan McGee, the head of Poptones, has signed a deal with that lunatic genius Kevin Shields again. The last McGee-Shields collaboration (made in 1988 when McGee was heading Creation Records) became an essential part of music history when Kevin's My Bloody Valentine took two and a half years and spent over a quarter a million pounds on recording their album 'Loveless'. It is apparent that McGee has learnt his lesson from that and this time he has signed Shields only to record a single. The name of Shields' new band Le Volume Courbe (Curved Volume) expresses faithfully what the group's music sounds like but why the single is called 'Harmony' I have no idea as all kinds of tunes are mixed up in it. The amazing thing about it is that it accepts each of its melodies as the leading one. "One, Two, Three, Four..." counts a hostess singer and then you are thrown straight into open play. A guitar determinedly rushes towards the other instruments and the singer starts spilling her heart out. Suddenly a second and then a third voice appear and then without respect to the music or each other, each start to sing in their own way. Somewhere in the middle of this instrumental earthquake everything breaks up and then slowly stars to build up again. A rebellious guitar is the first to claim your attention, and then is joined by pulsating drums. The girls' voices remain resolutely independent and contentedly carry on singing. High concentration won't help to see you through this harmonic mess, but if you lose your mind in it and try to dream yourself out of this strange world, it is an inspiring experience. At the end of the song the guitar steps side, blurs the scene and after the last word of the lyric the tune cuts off. To be honest "Harmony' is one of the weirdest songs I have ever heard. It ignores all music rules and uses a colourful variety of melodies, which make it beautifully new every time you play it

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