E – Living Waters (Silver Rocket) – We were either putting on a gig or at a gig someone else was putting on more times than not back in the 90’s, every night was a gig, the whole thing has meshed into one big gig now, one big amalgamation of the Falcon, the Marquee, the Astoria, The Monarch, The Powerhaus, The Robey and hundreds of other London places that no longer exist other than in our heads, one big band and one big gig that lasted for most of the decade. Were we at that one? Did we put it on? Did we imagine we saw that band? Come gigs always stuck out though, anything that involved Thalia Zedek did, it was alway good when she made it over from Bostor or wherever in the US her bands were based at the tine and this new album from E is drenched in that 90s feel, in that spirit that we don’t really celebrate enough, that time before the bloody nausea of Brit Pop swamped it all. Hang on, cut to the chaise here, that nine minute title track is epic, that is one serious piece of smouldering texture – so yes, Living Waters (the whole album and not just the glorious title track) is drenched in 90’s alt.guitar noise, in the experimental adventure of the better bands of the time, but not just that, this is not just looking back, this is picking up the ball, or maybe the jagged broken bottle, and running all the way past the here and now with it. This is running with the chemistry way beyond the shades of grey. There’s things on here that just wouldn’t have got past the gatekeepers in the 90’s, Deep Swerve is a delicious experiment, a wonderful palette, Deep Swerve is a buzz, a constant high and that title track Living Waters itself is something that’s annoyingly on the tip of my tongue, Living Waters is a monumental nine minutes and thirty-seven seconds of brilliant tension, nine minutes of master building with an undercurrent of skronk glowing underneath it in such a powerfully subtle tension building kind of way.

A three piece, a classic two at the front one at the back three piece. Always within the framework of a song, stretching that frame, pushing at the edges, never escaping though, never out of control, always distinctive, instinctive, quiet as snow, heavy, easy, demanding, defiant, knowing (there’s that word again, lots of knowing music around at the moment – see Corridor). Burning it all down, through the lies we’ve been told, not an inch of whiff of a hint of compromise, pecking now, peaking, Postperfect Conditional and you will not survive this, but I think we will, and all the better for it, anchor and chain? Dense, interwoven, glorious interplay, chemistry, between then, with us. Taut, tight, demanding, easy, never easy, no one ever said it as going to be easy, they got ethics, there’s guidelines, E are Jason Sanford (Neptune), Thalia Zedek (Come, Live Skull) and new drummer Ernie Kim. Damn this is good, this is the purpose, nothing will deter us, this is a high, E indeed… (sw) 

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