When Polvo split in 1998, they had carved their own distinctive niche into the hodgepodge of mid-90s alt-rock. With their noisy and dissonant but oddly melodic riffs, Polvo’s sound owed debts to both 1980s hardcore and abstract 1990s math-rock. After an eleven-year absence, Polvo returns in spectacular form on In Prism, which matches the murky, raucous aesthetic of their now decade-old discography while somehow still fitting into the landscape of contemporary indie rock.
In Prism is a surprisingly cohesive return for a group known for its sometimes heady excursions into bizarre time signatures and discordant soundscapes. At just eight tracks, In Prism’s songs feel laden with purpose, and even when Polvo drift into longer numbers like the album’s pensive closer “A Link in the Chain,” the record never feels long-winded or repetitive.
The guitars on the album’s opener, “Right the Relation,” growl, moan, and shimmer like it’s 1998, while lead vocalist Ash Bowie’s howls and cries are as cryptic and frenzied as ever. But it’s not the late 1990s anymore, and advances in recording technology do Polvo a great disservice. For a band that revels in the hazy, crunchy fuzz of slightly, purposefully out-of-tune guitars, the higher fidelity recording makes the intentional imperfections of their sound more noticeable and distracting.
While digital recording techniques and Pro Tools may dampen the band’s raw energy, they also allow a new, more polished sound to shine through. The band has always been at its best when it gathers all of its sprawling, noisy energy into a melodic climax, as it does on the beautiful “Lucia.” Here, the higher-quality recording gives their old sound a shiny new richness that, while absent from the band’s previous work, doesn’t feel out of place at all.
That’s a good epithet for In Prism as a whole, too: though it came uninvited and unexpected, one foot in the 90s and the other in the 21st century, it fits in nicely with the band’s previous work without sounding dated. It doesn’t acknowledge any of the changes in the rock landscape since their breakup, but serves as a timely reiteration of their still-unique sound. It’s almost as if they never left.
Voice’s Choices: “Beggar’s Bowl,” “Lucia”
