Axis:Sova - Motor Earth

Axis: Sova began as Brett Sova’s one-man operation, building up and stripping out parts from new and repurposed equipment, pitting meat against machine to find interplay, equilibrium. Touring the last two years as a band blew things wide open. ‘Motor Earth’ demanded that same visceral, live approach, so Axis: live band mainstay Tim Kaiser’s input on guitar was necessary and utilized. Along with him, others from the Axis: inner circle visited to transmit one sound or another, telescoping Sova’s terms of psychic distortion into clearer sight lines. Studio takes were live in duo and trio style, even, driving deeper into a spontaneous countryside than ever before. All the while, alien hands working the boards for the first time.

‘Motor Earth’ flames into action with the band ablaze, two guitars finishing each other’s sentences before expanding in the ether, only to catch fire and plunge back to earth, re-entering with steel-melting velocity. This is the moment of ‘Love Identity’, the keys to Motor Earth’s ignition.

Past its album-opening arc of floating feedback, more songs reveal themselves in tightly wound chugs. ‘(Like An) Intruder’ is a slab of classic snarl, ‘Eyes Have It’ dances a serrated, two- note tumble. The flip stretches out - ‘Violent Yellow’ swirls with paranoia before detonating into syncopated dual riffs; ‘Routine Machine’ lopes a hot lead over a damaged progression, meditating like a funeral procession to album’s end.

‘Motor Earth’ finds Axis: Sova assimilating back down on Earth, soaking in the flawed humanity and broken systems of the world, the repetitive nature of days and days, the course of years. Who’s getting off on the mundanity? Kiss the Axis: and you will find a parallel world of time. You’ll find the human collisions that occur as we run from society’s dreams of total control, causing sprays of rust from the decaying undercarriage. It’s the meeting of the reptilians and the beast within - the good, odd vibes resonating in late nights and the blown-ear mixes: the fractured togetherness of us all, revolving on ‘Motor Earth’.