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MV & EE "Wobbly Hall"

Wild crazyman set from the trio of Matthew Valentine, Erika Elder and Mick Flower from the "Steal Yr Slice" tour recorded at the Village Hall, Campsea Ash (Suffolk), UK. Further cultivation of the shows from this tour serves up a real treat here with a totally different sounding set from anything else we have heard from the rest of the tour so far. This set is dominated by some really wild exuberant guitar playing, with MV seeming to touch on reference points from James Gurley, John Cippolina and Jerry Garcia through to even Thurston Moore and finishing with some Japanese psych ala Masami Kawaguchi Masami whilst all being finally filtered and drained through a pint of raw ether in true Hunter S. style. The guitar sound is really overdriven and distorted, and at times descends into long passages of feedback. The playing itself alternates between wild flurries of notes and long drawn out chords or gaps creating a real sense of space while adding to the energy and anticipation of the performance. As always with MV - in true free folk style - whilst you can pinpoint the sources it always sounds unique with the music coming across as fluid, natural and seamless. This seems to work on this performance in particular as both Erika and Mick appear to be fairly restrained, providing the canvas for the wild expressions on top.
The set opens with "East Mountain Joint" with some gently strummed chords heavily laden in flange and phase before building into a more 'chopping' style not unlike Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl". Similar to the "Gis A Job" set, the highlight being the superb Crazy Horse/West Coast jam where all the playing described above boils over - my kinda stuff. Next up is "The Hungry Stones" which is considerably faster than usual played with an almost nervous energy. The song is played with a driving strumming technique combined with some light finger-picking. There is some real sweet harmonica on this one with the reeds really being made to work on those fat bends. There is also some light phasing FX on the guitar on the last verse which gives the song a nice spacey vibe. The real highlight on the set is the version of "Environments". Previous versions from the tour have had a strong Indian raga influence but the version here bears almost no resemblance and could be best described as an aria of carefully constructed feedback passages, resting somewhere between the melodic feedback from classic era Sonic Youth (think Evol or Sister) and the studio version of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". Although improvised live this comes across as a carefully constructed and complex piece which is a real treat. Some of the raga playing on the banjo can still be heard, but almost just the secondary acoustic sound of the strings via the placing of the mic, the electronic sound through the amplifiers being beautiful walls of sound - you have to hear this. This segues into "Huna Cosm" which is the set's other main highlight. Played slightly faster this does not have the same swamplike southern groove of the previous versions. The guitars are much more overdriven and trashed sounding giving this an almost loner acid biker feel like maybe Purling Hiss. The melody of the vocals can be heard clearly but the lyrics are almost inaudible which really adds to the degenerate loner vibe. At 2m28s the song breaks into a guitar lead of melting notes which alternates intermittently between walls of feedback as if lightning has struck "Wobbly Hall" causing random power surges. I have been spinning this all week and this moment gets me every time - you will need to peel yourself off the walls after hearing this one. The set closes with a delightful jam on "Get Right Church" which seems to cram everything about this set into its 10 minutes. More crazy wild guitar jams from MV with complex guitar lines behind some verses and then at others the guitars dropping out completely for no apparent reason. Again, it works as Mick provides the constant restrained backbeat without missing a note. There are many highlights but personal favourites include the reverse feedback chords which start at 7m05s or the moment at 7m57s where MV plays a guitar line which could have been lifted straight from Bukka White's "Shake Em On Down" as if paying homage to the source before returning seamlessly to the jam.
Overall, a great set which runs: "East Mountain Joint", "The Hungry Stones" into "Environments" into "Huna Cosm", "Catholic Cock Block Rap" and "Get Right Church". Whilst everyone will have their favourites from this tour there are a couple of unique versions to this set which make this well worth checking out. As if the music was not enough you've got to grab one of these as this features one of my favourite cover shots so far. MV on the merch table: I would like think that was a full moon in the background but I suspect it is the flash from the camera and I find myself checking out the cover in meticulous detail to the name all the albums. The crowd sound like they are whipped into a frenzy at times on this one and with support on the night coming from Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides followed by this wildman gunslinger guitar playing from MV this night must have been something special. I want to live in "Wobbly Hall" for a while. It's highly recommended. – Andrew Ross.