Lee Mvtthews – Bones
(Independent / NZ On Air)
Reviewed by Tim Gruar.
Lee Mvtthews aka Graham Matthews and Tom Lee have been musical collaborators since 2013 and have quickly gained a reputation for infectious tunes that pair colourful melodies with bass-driven drops. Their latest release takes that ambition to a new height.
Rising EDM stars Lee Mvtthews give us a rock solid set of festival bangers. Loaded with a full artillery of drum’n’bass, a touch of grime and a heavy seasoning of spicy vocals, this is an album of with a clever mix of pop sensibilities and stomping dance floor tension and release. The title track, Bones, featuring Kȁysh is especially satisfying. It’s a great tune that would work just as well on guitar but is heighten by the interplay between layers of digital fabric and climatic, repeating riffs that almost swarm like a dense sonic blanket. You don’t need to be out of your head to enjoy this one – but it may help! No surprise it’s a winner. The boys have just scooped up the #1 song on dance radio in New Zealand with this track – and they’ve just won best track and best artist at the 2019 Georgies (George FM awards).
The duo first turned heads with their debut EP, SILHOUETTES (2017) featuring some juicy collaborations with well-known Kiwis like Pieter T and TY. The stand-out track, Nothing To Lose, featuring Jay Bulletproof and Marino Mariner, cemented their reputation and laid down the template for their next four singles, Stay, Inside Out, Fool, and Let Me Go featuring Embher. They also spat out a pile of remixes for NZ pop/hip hop sensation Kings and Perth drum and bass virtuoso’s Flowidus and have become a favourite in the New Zealand festival circuit, playing regularly at the likes of Rhythm & Vines, Bay Dreams, Homegrown and Springbreak Fiji. No surprise that their music is made for the big raves.
I was also very impressed with the opener In The Dark, which starts with what sounds like a sly reference to a refrain on Pink Floyd’s Brain Damage before descending into a full on grime mash-up. What’s super impressive is the way it blends Abby Christo’s honey vocals with big urgent, grungy riffs. I was transported to a place of swirling search lights and pulsing, strobe colours. These boys are definitely on par with their peers like Shapeshifter and Pitch Black. Maybe we are seeing the future coming.
However, there are one or two less impressive moments. The occasional overindulgences can be a little bit boring. Repeated lines instead of fully fleshed out choruses are obviously part of a good anthem, yet a bit cliche’, too. And that’s why instrumentals always have a short shelf life in this genre. Take Surrender, for example. It just seems like an incomplete idea, going nowhere fast. It’s a good D’n’B jam but, ultimately, it’s too bland and in serious need of some vocals or a bridge or a direction change. I think of what PDiggs and co. would have done with this, crafting it into a more credible song.
Contact is an obvious contender for a singles release. Plenty of hooks and repetitive lines. It’s infectious and danceable. But not really a deeper or lasting tune. It’s something for now. Rei does a great job on the vocals and I was thankful that the team decided to hold back on the auto-cue trickery, because sometimes that can become really tedious very quickly. If a singer has a great voice and it stands up to the structure, why bury it in excessive electro-treatments?
On the other hand using Nü for Take Over was a smart move. Her voice is robust enough to hold up under the architecture of such a kaleidoscopic infrastructure. Under all these layers and layers of digital orchestration and meteoric percussion there is a great tune. It was a little repetitive but definitely chant-worthy for those revellers out on the festival tiles. This short but ultimately impressive set completes with a full on mash-up of techno features called Breathing. This could well be their show-off piece at the upcoming Rhythm’n’Vines and Homegrown gigs. Dropping in and out of a vast array of sounds, arpeggios, samples, beat breaks and cued overdubs this one builds up to a great DJ set starter. It’s more a pastiche of ideas than a ‘proper’ song. One for the techno-geeks. But still well impressive.
Techno types can catch The Bones Release Tour from when it kicks off in Dunedin on 5 November and then makes its way up the country before wrapping up with a huge pre-Christmas show at Studio the Venue in Auckland on 21 December.
LEE MVTTHEWS
Bones Release Tour
Dunedin
5 November | Forbury Park Raceway
with Melt, Mylen, Liftance & Tollo
Queenstown
9 November | Yonder
with Sin & Sly Chaos
Palmerston North
14 November | Secret Location
with Tommo & Yancy
Christchurch
7 December | Hide
with CSM B2B Holistic, Sin & Witters
Hamilton
14 December | Secret Location
with Wumbo, Sammie & Cheff
Mt Maunganui
20 December | Totara Street
with Kidku and more TBA
Auckland
21 December | Studio The Venue
with We Mouve Sound System, Aroha, Trey & Twenty Two
Tickets on sale now at leemvtthews.com
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