Matt Kivel - Fires On The Plain

Release Date:01/13/2017;Notes:*Received a 7.0 rating from Pitchfork. Fires on the Plain is the second album that Matt Kivel will release in 2016. It is an 82-minute record featuring performances by Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes), Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Sophia Knapp, and about 20 other people who you may not know as well. Fires on the Plain is Kivel's best record to date. It's a stone-cold classic of an album that is expansive and rich with detail. Horns blend with raindrops. Vocal howls give way to field recordings of rivers and backyards. The songs are sweet, dark, and always, brave. Matt will shower you mercilessly with distortion, soothe you with a quiet folk hymn, and launch into a motorik drum beat all within 5 minutes of music. It sounds wild, but it works beautifully. You will find that this music grows, evolves, and transfigures itself every time you return to it. It is a living, breathing thing, and I really hope that you take some time to enjoy it. These types of records aren't born every day.