For as long as it has existed, PVT has been an
elusive presence, a constantly evolving force challenging perceptions
about its music and approach. Innovation has been its only defining
logic, along with a live show that has left audiences in awe around the
world. With the band producing once again, the recording of Homosapien
was overseen at that sheep station by young engineer Ivan Vizintin, and
then mixed in London by Ben Hillier (Depeche Mode, Blur).
More open, intimate and direct than their previous albums, Homosapien
features songs of adversity, triumph and acceptance of the human
condition from a band as close as ever to defining ‘their sound’; a
seamless collage of instruments, electronics, old keyboards and
machines, and the human voice.
From the arresting, floating opener ‘Shiver’, to the gothic,
cathedral-like jigsaw of ‘Electric’, 3D love song ‘Vertigo’, or the
throbbing vintage drum machines and found-sound samples of ‘Evolution’
and ‘Nightfall’, Homosapien is an adventurous pop album, coloured and
shaped by a group at the peak of its powers.
As is always the case with PVT, their music is a sonic collision of
machine and man, yet the conflicts of these sound worlds apparent in the
past seem to have resolved for the band with this new album.
Along with space and a renewed sense of focus, it would appear that in ‘Homosapien’ PVT have also found their humanity.