Cave

• After last year’s icing on the CAVE, ‘Threace’, who knew when in the world there’d be another CAVE record? Next year maybe? Well, next year is here and there isn’t a new CAVE record but instead there’s a CAVE record with some ‘old’(ish) sides compiled.

• ‘Release’ compiles jams from the sweltering heart of CAVE that didn’t make it onto their three albums and three EPs. Anyone who’s heard their albums can attest that CAVE have a fresh, yet well-seasoned ear for long-play records and each one shows their ever-revolving palette. Being in CAVE is also about fun though and they’ve also indulged themselves now and again with standalone songs and short- play records on Trensmat, Static Caravan, Giradiscos and Permanent, as well as some self-released cassette freakouts.

• Like the best singles, CAVE’s sides here have singular qualities that songs on albums can’t, as they unwind themselves over 30 or more minutes in time. A couple of the Release tracks rock more extreme too, which the CAVE-head will find in awesome contrast to the refined production of ‘Neverendless’ and ‘Threace’.

• There are three waves of CAVE so far, from 2007 - 2014 and they’re all a part of ‘Release’. The first band was Cooper on guitar, organ and / or synth, Rex on drums and Zach on bass but Dan came on pretty quick after that and plays on almost everything else here. Then it was the second wave: Cooper, Rex and Dan plus Adam playing keys and Rotten Milk on synth. Adam left after ‘Pure Moods’ and Rotten Milk left after ‘Neverendless’. Then the third wave began when Jeremy came in on guitar. He plays and sings too on the ‘Threace’ outtake, ‘JIM’. Phase three continues to expand with Rob on woodwinds.

• Since the beginning, when they recorded on cassette and released on CD-R, CAVE have been all about formats, interacting with them as the they captured their sound, the weirder the better. ‘Release’ contains mostly 4-track stuff, plus some 8-track stuff. A bunch of the masters had to be transferred from VHS, which CAVE liked for mixdowns in the early days of the late 2000s.

• It should be said that the ‘Harshmellow Mix’ of ‘Butthash’ is not the same version as on the Permanent split 10” with the California Raisins.