It’s become increasingly difficult to write about Steve Davis of +DOG+ (and several other projects) each time. Not because of the music and noise he’s putting out, but because that is very much to my liking and taste. Also, not because of who he is, but because I’ve gotten to know him a bit, and he seems to be really a great person. But to write something original each time I write a new review because he is productive as hell these days. I’ve written about him no less then 18 times and to give a little indication – Vital Weekly is all voluntary work and I get to keep the promo’s I want. And with the +DOG+ releases, I never felt it should not be in my permanent collection. Hence, my IKEA Billy has more than a full backspace of Doggies, which will be #19.
“The Light Of Our Lives” is a bit weird, as it focuses on the experiment a bit more than on full compositions. The length of the tracks is between 90 seconds and 15 minutes, but even with the many shorter tracks – there are 20 tracks in total – it’s not as if the shorter tracks are just to investigate a particular setup or specific sound or structure. Within their shortness, there is still a story to be found. Hmm, maybe something like micro compositions would be more fitting than experiments. But let’s just go through the whole album.
There is a slightly more significant role for rhythm/drums. Several tracks have a drum track, either real drums or a drum computer. For example, ” Preemptive Love, “There Is No Goodbye, Only Love, ” and “The Light” even remind me of fragments of the Peace & Love releases on Love Earth Music. And then there are also tracks where guitars are added to the sound spectrum (“The First Day In This World”). I’m trying to remember if I heard those before with +DOG+’s music, but I can’t. And I’m not going through all of the 18 releases to double-check; it seems to be something new for the ever-evolving artist that is Steve Davis.
But on that same album, it’s not all drums and noise; take, for example, the carefully arranged “The Silence Of Sound”, “Once There Were Woods There”, “Crows Around”, and “This One Life”. And I must add that final one reminded me even a bit of Atrax Morgue. And of course, harsh noise action, relentless in your face/ear action like “Sunflowers 2” can also be found on this one. The digital download gets you an extra 10 minutes in the form of “DeRevolution 1” which no longer fits the CDr.
Final words? Nice doggy. He doesn’t bite but makes a lot of noise.
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