By: Daniela Patrizi
Polymath | facebook | twitter | bandcamp | soundcloud |
Released on February 16, 2015 via Lonely Voyage Records
After the release of successful singles and touring across UK, the Brighton based fellows of Polymath have returned with an EP titled Reptiles.
Tim, Chris and Joe spent one week in studio with producer and engineer Lee McMahon crafting their new work that will be released on vinyl via Lonely Voyage Records. Their music style is labeled as math rock but I would say that they are more experimental for the way they keep on inventing new sounds always crossing every boundary between math rock and progressive rock.
If there’s a constant element in their songs – included the previous works of the band – that’s the spring-loaded rhythm session, as bass and drums mesh and interweave like a well oiled engine.
Polymath’s first EP is not revolutionary but it’s quite fascinating. The opener, ‘Reptiles’ is a short intro – less than one minute song – that leads us into ‘Babel’ that, as the name suggests, is a mess. There’s no coherence in this track; riffs are dissonant and the rhythm itself, with its stops and starts, is sometimes uncomfortable. But ‘Babel’ keeps you on the move and doesn’t leave you. Put simply, it’s brilliant.
What is notable is the superb sense of tension that each instrument is able to create. Each note explodes and expands like fuel in a combustion chamber and the effect is powerful. ‘Castrovalva’ and ‘Metamorphosis’ are perfect examples of what I’m saying.
In terms of style, Reptiles changes structure very often. Apart from the intro, that’s short, each one of the five songs of Reptiles has in it shifting patterns that can become tracks within tracks. And there are also patterns within patterns so that the entire album changes continuously and dramatically.
Compared to the first part of the EP, the last two tracks ‘Metamorphosis I’ and ‘Metamorphosis II’ have both an even more intense, pursuing rhythm that sometimes is abrasive and noisy but other times it has an unexpected melody that helps you to have a precious half-second rest in this crazy, innovative and unique sonic ride.
In terms of songs, Reptiles doesn’t offer a lot of variation. The whole EP is like a unique track that flows like a river changing directions, falling dawn and rising again, going faster and slower, and having about 20 minutes of the same thing is not monotonous at all.
This is the talent of Polymath.
