Every artist here knows how magickal it is to release a vinyl. At least, well, maybe not if you’re releasing vinyl all the time, like when you were a techno artist in the 1990s and vinyl was the standard, but for a lot of ‘us’ who release cassettes, digital-only or CDRs in low counts vinyl remains something so beautiful and mysterious. So after many of those, it was time for Steve Davis / +DOG+ (don’t forget those ‘+’-signs), the owner of Love Earth Music, to finally release a full album on vinyl. And here it is.
“Angel Wings” has beautiful artwork from LOB as always, a view through the leaves of a tree where the leaves themselves look like bugs have eaten them; The beauty of nature in relapse, or maybe as a hint towards trees being food for another species giving them life. Who knows, it fits the music strangely enough. Yes, noise and nature, because noise is one of the most rudimentary forms of art, in my opinion. It’s about letting emotions out with what you have and focusing on the emotion itself rather than the output of your actual art.
Eleven tracks are evenly spread over two sides (one 6, one 5), and the playing times are roughly 2 and 4 minutes. Side A opens with a pulsating drone with some throbbing noise in the background entitled “They were all good kids”. And it’s the start of a relentless journey through 18 minutes of feedback, delay and reverb as an instrument, voices (I dare not use the term vocals here), improvisation with gadgets and synths and nicely saturated sounds through excellent use of mixing EQs. At least, I think that’s how he did it. Side B opens more relaxedly with the minimal approach of noisy electronic sounds in ‘Don’t be doomed’, after which ‘Physical Sense’ continues with ever-so-subtle feedback in the background. And it’s not until the fourth track, “Like in olden times”, that the music becomes quite heavy again. While listening, I was constantly drifting away until here, so that’s good. The final track is the title track, but it is ‘Angel Wings 2’ Have I missed something? No, the original ‘Angel Wings’ was released on a previous album ‘To share with you forever’. But there is a difference: These wings are 1min38sec, a playful track with a toy box, whereas the original wings are more massive, almost devilish—thirteen minutes of noise. Here, I have some questions left, which my brain will, without doubt, at some point, answer in a different setting.
“Angel Wings” is an album which turned out great. There are many great moments on both sides and if it’s too expensive for you to get it from the US to where you live, you might consider the digital version. You get a free bonus track, ‘Far, far away’, a 24-minute feedback piece of weirdness to comfort you in the feeling that the vinyl was rugged.
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