Review: Chuter - Coma

The first review award on this here blog goes to the new ep "Coma" by Chuter.  I can think of no other release I would rather have given this honor to.  This ep is a tremendous little thing, little only in its length as the breadth, scope and, most importantly, its maturity is massive and it would fit perfectly in Creation Records' catalog, if they were still around that is.  Creation 2.0 perhaps?

I first discovered Chuter through the man himself, Jack Chuter, in a nefarious den of iniquity known as the Avalanchers forum where he had posted about his first couple of releases.  I was quite taken by the quality of them, not only in sound and production but songwriting as well, rare these days for such a new project to show that, especially for its sole member being so young.  After a long spell of quiet from him (the odd track here or there that I've not checked out yet, sorry) comes Coma which feels like a huge step forward.

The first of the two tracks, "Agitated", is a killer.  It starts with just some heavily affected, looped guitar, synth and vocals drenched in reverb and delay slowly pulling you in for almost 2 minutes until you are hit with the huge drums and bass which deliver a building, driving rhythm while adding layers of guitar and building the track up.  The vocals become a barely there element that seem to creep about the track hiding way in the back. 

The second track, "Fading From View", is more reserved.  Opening with drums while guitar slowly fades in and vocals more prominent enter with some beautiful guitar melody underneath them it stays a quiet meditative song enhanced by various sounds, buried spoken vocals and penny flute.  It never gets too loud and carries on at a relaxed pace while never getting boring.

What is most striking about this release is its professionalism in both production and songwriting.  It sounds fantastic and full.  Nothing sounds forced or thrown together.  Every layer of these songs feels intentional, like it needs to be there.  Take it away and you lose part of the drive and narrative of the song.  It is not the "layers for layers sake" thing that many releases like this suffer from.  The songs both feel like they would be just as good alone in an acoustic, stripped down setting as they are in their form here.  My one complaint is that "Fading From View" sounds like it should have another song following it.  That's a compliment really as I just want more.  But that's what they make the "repeat" button for. 

Someone needs to sign, or at least distribute, Chuter's releases.  More people need to know.

Do yourself a favor and check this out.  It can be had for free at Chuter's bandcamp page in almost any digital flavor you want.

http://chuter.bandcamp.com/album/coma

And you will find some of his earlier releases over at Archive.org.