'Utterly boo-licious debut slab by this new duo, made up of Matt “MV” Valentine and Pat “P.G. Six” Gubler, who have been in cahoots since the near-forgotten days of Memphis Luxure. The pair (mostly known for guitar-aktion) create a full band's worth of jams using percussion and keys and all-else.

The results make for one of the more mind-melting platters to've hit the Valley in a good while.

Like many of the best sides this pair has been associated with, the music on Livin' the Die is an elegant balance of ramble and spear. The songs' formats are as loose as Earl Butz's shoes but each of them is lanced with guitar sounds as tight as his legendary fist. Around these spumes of electric menace you'll find rings of crazy space burble and vocals so deeply layered they sound like something happening in the back of Daevid Allen's brain. But large swathes of the album are rurally expansive, as befits the mountainside on which it was recorded.

Pods of guitar-pedal-whomp slowly surface in the middle of whirling sea of harmonica slurps, juice harp bwongs and vocals as dreamy as they are lost. Roll a bone or be one. The choice, as always, is yours.
- byron coley
winter 2018