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Like a blizzard in a snow globe. American indie label File 13 Records released what was already Martin Rev's sixth solo album in the autumn of 2003. The previous year, Rev and his musical partner Alan Vega had struck out in a new direction on their "American Supreme" album and Rev's solo works continued in a similar vein.
If "Strangeworld" from the year 2000 actually felt more like a timeless abstract of Martin Rev's entire spectrum of musical influences, "To Live", three years later, introduces more contemporary elements, including guitar samples for the first time.
The record met with mixed reactions on release. Some critics were wrongfooted by sequence-driven segments and the industrial rock characteristics of the late 1990s - not what they expected from a Rev album. In the same way that Suicide's revolutionary new sound was loved and hated in equal measure back in the 1970s, Rev was still polarizing opinion with his music some 30 years later. But even if synthesizer drones and minimalist keyboard figures were less prominent on "To Live" it is fair to say that all of the tracks shared the inimitable language of form which made Martin Rev's sound so distinctive.
Tracklist
1) To Live
2) In Your Arms
3) Black Ice
4) Gutter Rock
5) Shimmer
6) Painted
7) Places I Go
8) Lost In The Orbits
9) Jaded
10) Our Roads
11) Search For Stone
12) Water
13) Stormy