(((O))) : Xenograft, Kettlespider, Bear the Mammoth – split EP

The concept of this split EP is very simple. Three bands, contributing one song each, all three bands are Australian bands, all three bands are based in Melbourne, and all three bands are instrumental bands. The execution is far from simple though. The three bands on offer here each play a different style or musical genre, although with plenty of overlap, and each band plays with a freakinglishly impressive technicality.

Let’s start with Xenograft, who kick off this 3-way musical love affair with the track ’Victimentia’.  And oh my, it’s been a while since I pressed play to listen to a new release with my jaw instantly just dropping to my knees! From the second the drums kick in you know you’re in for a technical musical virtuoso, a masterclass in instrumental precision. Xenograft utilises a huge range of instruments, drums, guitars, bass, keys, various percussion instruments, and most notable the saxophone. And it is this saxophone combined with the rhythms jumping all over the place which makes me think of this Italian band called Zu, but only because of the similar use of the saxophone.  But it’s not as ‘crazy’ and intense as Zu and my comparison is only based on this saxophone sound. There is a point in this track where everything drops into a brilliant jazz-fusion part with guitar and saxophone alternately solo-ing their way towards the end of the track. As you can tell, I am really impressed and I am looking forward hearing more from this band.

We leave this jazzy math-madness behind and we hit the next track by Kettlespider, and it’s straight away obvious that ‘The Transcent’ is something completely different. This is progressive metal from the top shelf. I am not the biggest prog metal fan, but I’m enjoying this track immensely. The guitar and keyboards mirror themselves in this repetitive sequence of similar sounding notes, which at first listen bothered me slightly, but after a listening to this track a couple of times I actually found myself whistling along to it. I never thought this musical genre would work very well without a vocalist but Kettlespider demonstrate nicely on this track that I am totally wrong thinking this. The heavy keyboard use make the use of a vocalist totally not needed here.

After a fade out it’s Bear the Mammoth’s turn and they bring a huge ‘progressive’ post-rock track to this split EP. The bass sounds amazingly Tool-like when ‘Sea Caesar’ starts, with those looped sounding bass notes going all over the neck of the bass guitar. The drums sound programmed when the track starts, but when the real drums kick in the drummer in me can only smile and appreciate the emotions the drummer hits in my drummer’s heart. It’s nothing too technical but brilliantly executed and just perfect for this type of music. I’ve listened to this EP mainly on my commute to and from work sitting on a busy buss going through Edinburgh’s busy city centre and each time this track made me lose my thoughts and stare out of the window without noticing much of what was going on around me. It’s stuff of which beautiful dreams are made of.

Interestingly, the digital bandcamp download of this split EP also comes with three additional remix tracks, which I won’t review here, as the physical CD doesn’t have these included. All in all, three very good and very well produced tracks by three quite different bands, but what makes this a very interesting split EP is that all three tracks seem to blend together quite effortlessly.

Go and check this EP out now and support these very talented Melbourne musicians!