Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If you can listen to the Caves’ new E.P., One, and not feel the pulse, the sensation of something that grips the attention and the raw emotion that is stamped throughout the three tracks, then there is no hope for you. The pothole that you poked your head over and scanned the musical horizon briefly may just be too comfortable for you too ever leave.
Andy Pink, Dan Carney, Jon Huntley and Dan Walsh are young enough to let the world come to them for now and with age and experience they will join a long list of bands and artists that have made Liverpool the powerhouse of new music for the 21st Century. This is music that doesn’t rely on the favourability of judges from the world of television to know that what they have, cannot be bottled, cannot be shared for the mass entertainment appeal via a live camera and a man holding up a placard saying applause; they are here to make music in the right way, in venues, via a studio and for real life, not a based reality.
Three songs is all it takes to know that Caves are not just good, they have a sound that crunches any type of cynicism into a thousand pieces, toss it into the nearest bin and light and toss a match gleefully over the remains. Oh Amy is a perfect track to kick start an E.P. and with the excellent Swim and rousing Newark adding to the pleasure of what is coming out of the listener’s speakers making the recording near unbeatable and undeniably good.
Caves are meant to be explored, the dark and supposed gloom always hides a treasure so rare that people fight over the prize, die for plunder and worship the gems inside, the men, the musicians that make up Caves are no different, what a prize they are even now.
Ian D. Hall