Matt C. White and Last Relapse Reviewed
Matt C. White – Ursa
It’s amazing what people will pay and put themselves through on the promise of a Revelation. It’s unbelievable the sort of gurus that people will believe if they just promise to tell them something that nobody else knows. Just look at them. They’re all buying tickets to fly out to the jungle, or they’re joining some bizarre sex cult that’s not even fun or clean.
Yeah, everyone’s looking to access some of those secrets, and everyone seems to want, for at least a few brief moments, to be someone other than who they really are. But why try so hard? Why try to invent brand-new strategies when extraordinary ones exist already? Matt C. White wants to remind us that trippy rock music should always be our go-to plan for revelatory messages.
Besides, the map’s been drawn a long time ago, and White’s single, “Ursa,” guides him by it. The topography is written in a language that involves psychedelic jam bands, krautrock, and stoner music. The sounds are created using electric guitars that work with pedals the way that a magician works with secret formulas. “Ursa” is a revelation.
Last Relapse – In My Place
It’s not easy to consider the sheer level of collective grief that exists at any one point. It’s never a comfortable thought when you start counting the victims of military conflicts, or just the people who perish each day in civilised, wealthy cities. But you brush those aside. You have to! How else would you go about your day?
Instead, most of us choose distractions that help us forget and keep us jolly. That’s one of the reasons we like pop music so much, I suppose. It’s supposed to be a quick fix for terrible problems best left alone.
But you can’t do that forever. Sooner or later you’ll need to let those questions be asked. That’s what Last Relapse have done on “In My Place,” a slow-burning, psych-oriented rock song about being one of the fortunate ones, and not knowing what to do about it. It’s the band members’ experience of playing with each other and being in the same company that allows the song to have the mesmerising effect that it does.
