Chicago psych-rock troupe Cave have always been capable of striking a middle path between free-sailing wah-pedal-fueled abandon and good taste, but the quartet’s third album, Threace, finds them exercising even more restraint than usual.
Formed in 2006, Cave has cycled through two cities—relocating to Chicago from Columbia, Missouri—and a number of musicians, but its sound has remained fairly consistent. The quartet draws heavy inspiration from German experimental rock music of the late 60s and early 70s, particularly rhythm-driven outfits like Can and Neu!. Cave’s compositions are sprawling, but tightly focused, employing simple major-key melodies to sustain the rhythms section’s hypnotic grooves. On previous LPs like Psychic Psummer and Neverendless, the band perfectly emulated its idols—nailing the recording techniques, the tonalities, and the playing style of continental Europe’s finest vintage head-music.
On Threace, the group’s second full-length for Drag City, Cave’s heart still beats to the motorik pulse, but they’ve broadened out their repertoire to include some of the other groovy, stoney sounds of the 70s.
“Arrow’s Myth” begins with a driving groove, but the guitars quickly give way to a rhodes-driven ambient zone-out that carries more than a whiff of fusion-era Miles Davis. “Silver Headband” opens with odd-time krautrock homage, but the heavy rave-up that closes the song owes some of its steely grind to progressive blues rock records.
Cave’s music is rooted in minimalism and the band has never been guilty of over-playing, but on Threace, the group holds back even more than usual. In the past, the band relied heavily on loud-soft dynamics to create urgency, pivoting from delicate to distorted in order to drive a song forward. On many of the compositions here, they establish a groove and hover in place. The last third of twelve-minute album opener, “Sweaty Fingers", is made up of staccato guitars scratching out supplemental percussion for a hi-hat groove. One psychedelic staple that you seldom hear in Cave’s music is echo. Guitarists Jeremy Freeze and Cooper Crain keep their riffs dry, leaving no atmosphere or texture to cloud their interlocking melodies or hide smudged rhythms.
Because krautrock downplayed harmony in favor of rhythm, the music has a certain mechanical connotations. Yet, it’s never monotonous. The notes are simple and repetitive, but there’s a subtle human feel in the rhythm section that keeps the music flowing forward. It’s an element that many revivalists sideline, because it’s tough to do. Cave nail it, though. On Threace, they prove to be excellent players on a technical level, who can zero in on minute detail and keep stasis interesting. They’re not just guys with really great record collections, they’re excellent musicians.
