Kee Avil, Spine: REVIEW

Kee Avil, Spine (Constellation) 

When Vicky Mettler, better known as Kee Avil on the experimental music scene, dropped her debut album Crease in 2022, it sent a strange ripple through my oversaturated mind. It was an album free of convention and full of discordant guitar licks, darkened trip-hop glitches and ripped-apart drum fills … and I loved it. Now we have the follow-up Spine, a lumbering album that pares back some of the electronics and focuses on the sinister hisses and whispers of Mettler’s voice, some spindly guitar licks and, at times (as with “do it again”) double bass. 

I think the aspect I love about Kee Avil’s work is the brief and subtle rhythm sections that surface momentarily before disappearing completely, as with the track “showed you.” The lyrics feel derived from a very stream-of-consciousness void, often feeling like a gothic cry for help or an arcane adumbral chant. Just listen to “under.”

Throughout Spine, standard song elements like the verse, chorus and bridge are left out to dry like wet laundry while tracks cannibalize themselves for three minutes, and sometimes explode with harsh emotion. It’s not fun music, but it awakens the darker parts of the mind craving something strange and awkward. 8/10 Trial Track “showed you”

For more on Kee Avil, please visit her Bandcamp.

---

For our latest in music, please visit the Music section.