Matt Stevens – ‘Lucid’ [Review]
Now, this is what it’s all about. Serious musical eclecticism is one of my favourite things in the world; it’s why I love bands like Falsense, Signals, EaglePrawn, and The Fierce And The Dead (the latter being Matt Stevens’ home band). It’s also why I love Steve Vai – and although Lucid is rougher around the edges than Vai’s trademark productions, it is no less masterful.
Every track on here is a gem, a mini musical universe. Lucid took three years to create, and it is worth every moment. For me, highlights included The Other Side‘s upbeat-Foo-Fighters-meets-looping-tech intro (which is then joined by exotic melodic pipa flavours and Vai-like note choices); The Ascent‘s King Crimson / Mahavishnu Orchestra angularity (an appropriate vehicle for guest drummer Pat Mastelotto, of Crimson fame); and the title track’s brilliantly syncopated and poky polyrhythmic layers, which add up to an unrelentingly infectious groove. I would go so far as to say that if Frank Zappa were alive today and using looping tech, he might well have composed something like Lucid.
Such preferences, however, are hard to judge when there’s so much awesomeness crammed in here. KEA sounds like an army of Rodrigo Y Gabriela clones bent en masse to Matt Stevens’ every whim; Street and Circus‘s layers and melodies are wonderfully restrained and powerfully effective; and Coulrophobia‘s sparseness suggests the joint influences of David Gilmour and Portishead. At times it sounds like Stevens is sitting on a tree branch and sawing it off at the same time; during others you could well be forgiven for visualising serene landscapes painted in pastel colours.
Overall, Lucid is a vividly hallucinatory album full of pleasure, reward, and so many personalities on display that it’s hard to believe that this album is the brainchild of one man. But since it is that, Matt Stevens deserves a massive round of applause and, of course, your time and attention.
Links / Listen
Buy Lucid on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/lucid/id848045570
Matt Stevens on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattstevensloop
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