Chevron

What do you get if you take a fistful of Acid House, a smattering of Venetian Snares and a tablespoon of Jungle, stick it in the blender then garnish the results with a side-order of Aphex acid? Chevron, that's what! Jonathon Valentine (aka Chevron) has produced a Breakcore album that isn't afraid to make a mess then not bother cleaning it up afterwards, lobbing all manner of styles and genres into a coruscating cluster-fuck. 'Everything's Exactly the Same' opens with 'Swimming Lessons', a dirty face off between beats and synths with Romvelope refereeing and neither side willing to back down. Elsewhere 'Running Out of Time' has a beat that sounds like it's been on 60 full-fat Marlboro for the past twenty years, being thrown down the stairs in a metal dustbin, whilst 'Emails and Viruses' has snare-kicks ricocheting around a late-80's rave vocal, updating the classic formulae to a crushingly effective result. I can almost smell the Vicks Vapour and exhaust fumes from here! Valentine does understand that such full-on beat platters could become wearing and gives welcome relief in the shape of more downbeat tracks scattered throughout, most notably the Blade Runner inspired 'Optic Realisation' and shimmering beats of the Magnetophone infused 'Kingdom'.
- BOOMKAT
It has been a long time since a truly outstanding practitioner of the dark art of ambient drill n bass has stepped out into the light. With ‘Everything’s Exactly the Same’, Chevron has transformed himself from shy debutante to knob-twiddler extraordinaire. Everything about this album is sublime: dubby electronics make small talk with ambient beats and ragga mc’ing mingles with harsh breaks and bass. Even at its most energetic, Chevron is restrained enough not to take the music to extremes, making this one of 2005’s most unexpected musical joys.
- DJ MAGAZINE
That old phrase about how talent borrows whereas genius steals certainly rings true throughout "Everything's Exactly The Same". Chevron's stunning debut album. Few are the producers who would view rave-era Hoover noises and a snatch of Kate Bush (stop sniggering!) as potential bedfellows. Fewer still have the skill to pull it off, but Chevron, AKA Jonathan Valentine, clearly has talent and imagination to spare. If you can imagine a middle ground between Plaid, DJ Rupture's reconstructed ragga and the mystical techno of the Red Planet label, then you might just have the vaguest idea what to expect - but music this original and this inspiring deserves to be heard, and not just imagined.
- iDJ
There's not much to be said for disorgansed cacophony, whatever the advocates of punk improv might try and tell you. Organized cacophony, however, is an entierly different matter and Chevron play that game with no mean skill. 'Everything's Exactly The Same' dispenses with musical niceties, and cuts straight to the chase with a screeching assult on the senses, a perfect introduction to an album of pressurized electronica. Some of it might fall flat on it's face, it's polyrhythmic movements unable to justify their own complexity, but, for every miss, there are twice as many hits. It switches effortlessly between thrilling technical excellence and quirky experiments, mocing ambient electronica's myopia with the wafting futuristic echoes of 'Optic Realisation'. Everything else might be exactly the same, but Chevron is definitely unique.
- ROCK SOUND