VIVA VOCE (tran. ‘by word of mouth’) is a husband and wife team, Anita and Kevin Robertson based in Oregon. She sings, he sings. She plays some instruments, he plays some instruments. They record, produce and mix their music at home. ‘The Heat Can Melt Your Brain’ is their second album but the first to reach UK shores.
Together they have made a superlative independent album that is quite staggering in its beauty, its quirkiness and its richness of melody. The album opens with a stone cold classic cut in the shape of ‘Alive With Pleasure’. The rolling bruising drumming of the opening section (like The Pixies without the shredded guitars) segues into a slowed segment that comes over like Low reinterpreting Mott The Hoople’s ‘All The Young Dudes’ before crashing back into that fantastic drum section, but now with added hand-claps. As a statement of musical intent it is absolutely superb.
Luckily for us all, there is so much more to VIVA VOCE than one brilliant song. Any preconceptions I may have had of their musical agenda are blown away by the restless, shifting and discordant ‘Business Casual’, its edginess softened by the keyboard. ‘Daylight’ has a deceptive poppiness but its lightness is darkened by the low-slung acoustic guitar and bass (like ‘Mellow Gold’ era Beck) and the scuzzy guitar outro. The bass heavy and moody acoustic backdrop continues with ‘Free Nude Celebrities’ but relief is once again provided by the airy vocals of Anita and Kevin and the surf-guitar breaks.
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The mood is shifted significantly by the druggy, soulful, percussive shuffle of ‘High Highs’ while the brief ‘Lesson No.1’ rings in the changes yet again with its 60s psychedelic guitar pop structure and the boy/girl vocal performance that recalls Joy Zipper. ‘Mixtape=Love’ opens with Lennonesque piano chords and vocal melody line but once again offers deeper riches with the incredibly creamy, dreamy production on the chorus line. The mini-epic grandeur of ‘Centre of The Universe’ is strongly reminiscent of both The Flaming Lips and Granddaddy. The MBV informed ‘The Lucky Ones’ is another acoustic pop gem while the closing track ‘They Never Really Wake Up’ is just lovely, lovely, lovely.
‘The Heat Can Melt Your Brain’ is everything I love about music: melodic, uncompromising, poppy, experimental, unique, quirky and edgy. VIVA VOCE have chosen their influences well but, more significantly, have found their own unique voice and I for one am extremely grateful for having been able to hear it.
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