Matt Stevens - Relic [Review]

Mr. Matt Stevens, you and your colleagues are beyond awesome!

Isn't it nice when you find a project completely unknown to you and it sounds so beautiful? Of course it is! I've never heard of this man before, until being suggested by Dysfunktion, who asked me to review this. Gosh, was I pleased with this listen! This release right here needs to be huge (that goes for the genre too, by the way)! Matt's music is very upbeat in some songs! Honestly, this is the first time I haven't fallen asleep to a post-rock song while in the bus. The power of guitars, bass, keys, glockenspiel, violin and some backing vocals just make you want to live longer!

We all know post-rock and shoegaze can get pretty repetitive sometimes, right? That's not the case here! Happy, melodious and even agressive (!) tunes aren't dull or boring in any possible way! Acoustic and electric guitars play a big role in Matt's music. Clean or distorted, they both sound great! Most tracks are mid or fast-tempo, and all contain guitars which are practically dancing with drums (except track 5, it has no drums, but is an awesome 3-minute guitar melody.). The producer must be really good, since all songs have unique sound characteristics of their own.

What's also good about this release is that it draws some influences from other genres, like noise and metal. What's even better, additional influences don't hurt, but improve the whole thing! Yeah, catch the first Nightbus and enjoy! Thanks to Matt Stevens, Kevin Feazey, Chrissie Caufield (violin), Stuart Marshall (Drums) for making such music!

- review by 'distant' -

Grades

- Music -
10 - beautiful!
- Songwriting -
10 - loving every second of it!
- Production -
10 - it's obvious that the producer knows what he's doing
- Vocals -
/
- Lyrics -
/