Mat Riviere – Coal // Song Of The Day #282

Beyond the sweater and the curly hair, Mat Riviere is an electronic dynamo. London-based label Brainlove has a growing reputation for producing left-field and experimental music, and Riviere is a particular favourite of mine from their prolific roster.

The first new material since his 2010 releases, Follow Your Heart and the Evening Drive EP, ‘Coal’ follows the lead set by its brilliant predecessors. Building slowly with a crooked off-key guitar, Riviere’s typically laconic vocals overlay as his tonal range varies from falsetto to baritone in a way that sounds perfectly natural but logically shouldn’t be.

While not as openly provocative as some of the tracks gracing his debut, nor as intense as his live shows, the lyrics show Riviere is still as dark and brooding as ever. “The hair on my arms will grow thick as the tree trunks, when I put my hands around his throat” he sings, perfectly encapsulating those moments of red mist where passivity turns into unbridled psychosis.

A second new track, ‘Summons’, has also been uploaded by Riviere and is available on Soundcloud.