MV+EE - Drone Trailer

If Sonic Youth ever decided to jam with Neil Young, then they might end up in similar territory to MV+EE. Matt Valentine and Erika Elder (the MV+EE of their band name) manage the neat trick of employing meandering jazz improvisation and My Bloody Valentine-style drone over surprisingly linear country tunes, all the while erring on the right side of self-indulgence. Opening track Anyway could be a Crazy Horse out-take if they had decided to give vocal duties to Kim Deal, while The Hungry Stones is like Wayne Coyne doing his best to sound like Old Shakey (but still managing to slip a few references to astral planes in there). When Valentine and Elder sing together they conjure up images of Mormon indie darlings Low, and the depth of sincerity they manage to add to the material helps to inject real beauty into the genre-bending experimentation bubbling underneath the surface. [Ewen Millar]