IVVVO - dOG (Halcyon Veil)

IVVVO - dOG (Halcyon Veil) The follow-up to IVVVO’s ‘Good, Bad, Baby, Horny’ sees him unpackage and build upon that EP in all directions at once in a viscerally corporeal and sorely emotional salvo intended to be taken as his definitive opus to date. Across its 15 songs the London-based, Portuguese producer spells out a narrative as vividly hypermodern as a Nicolas Winding Refn flick but set in the fashionista underbelly of London, with crucial assistance on two of the album’s highlights coming from soundtrack composer and ‘Hollywood Medieval’ producer Maxwell Sterling. 

Like a magpie with fancy taste, IVVVO picks the shiniest and most effective elements of contemporary dance/rock/pop and electronica - from deconstructed trance synths to blockbuster sound design and choral arrangements - and then weaves them into searing, reactive expressions of modernity. The results are skizzy, veering from anxious to ecstatic and often in the space of one song. 

Kicking off with convulsive samples of Korn’s Jonathan Davis wedged into the nerve-jangling opener ‘This is Dog’, the LP bleeds with emotion at each step, from the heart-bursting Lorenzo Senni-esque style of ‘Life’ to the clenched and knotted grunge reflux of ‘Forever Your Mouth’ to the visceral, Arca-like incision of ‘Blade’, while two pieces with Maxwell Sterling, the Coil-like arabesque ‘Untitled’ and the vertiginous flight of ‘Last Days’, seal the deal with decadent flourishes. 

IVVVO delivers an intelligent sound powered up by a great emotional taunt... brilliant execution mate... I'm ready for the apocalypse, the time is now! Highly Recommended!!!