ON LITTLE KNOWN FREQUENCIES

Give a label to a band like this is not easy. First of all it's a trio, and we all know how skilled a musician has to be to play in a trio. Not a trio like ELP where there's one leading instrument and two sparring partners. This is a real ensemble, and the final product is amazing.

Checksum, the first track, can remind to some new wave of the 80s (I mean the Felt) with a bit of psychedelia, until the choir comes. Hard to classify, but good music with no doubts. After the choir the tempo changes to (i think) 5/4 and fades out to the second track

Individual Factories begins with a 4/4 disco rhythm that gives room to some guitar chords with a grunge/punk taste and comes back to the base rhythm, then it changes drastically. There are echoes of garage bands like Green Jelly but when it becomes slower, it's pure progressive that may be liked also by Genesis fans it ges instrumental until the end

Beyond Good and Elvis is more melodic. Variations in the tempo compense the stability of the pitch. It seems a track designed for the drums on which Choung can show all his ability, then a clean guitar in wishbone ash style (pilgrimage as reference) introduces the epic final.

A Sixth Trupmet starts slowly with the guitar, bass and cymbals then a cello (or a keyboard, who knows?) appears for a while. After two minutes a crescendo introduces the drums, but the essence of the track doesn't change. It's a relaxing track. Reference Felt: The splendour of Fear

An Ounce of Prevention is totally different. A marching drum and three guitar notes. Everything but melodic, now. The tension grows until the bass adds some funky. However the guitar and its harmonics don't let the bass follow the funky rhythms too long. This is a very complex track. Very interesting, but some changes from one theme to the following have discontinuities like those that are quite common in Mike Oldfield's suites. In the middle of the track a voice cries something that I can't understand, then the music restart. When the discontinuity is intentional it doesn't disturb. This is a dark long track, even if the last minutes are back to melody, with the drums making reggae-like accents (don't misundertand, there's no reggae at all here. Only accents).

The first five is short and repetitive, with scratching, dubbing and mixing. Chill-out mainly, but it's just 3 minutes.

Let them know It's christmastime is one of the best album's tracks. A sequence of 3 chords is alternated to parts with speaking voice, bass and drums. After about 4 minutes it slows and a cello/keyboard leads over a guitar loop. Voices are back and we are in the second part of the track. Very different from the first, with drums leading and a spanish speaking voice (Fidel Castro?) speaks about survival of human race and American imperialism. For a while, then guitar and bass are back, the rhythm increases and the track goes to the end

Hammer and Nails starts slow and is a bit boring for the first 4 minutes, but when the drums start pumping and the guitar uses a middle-east scale, it's another story! at the end this is probably the best track of the whole album. At least it varies a lot.

3.5 stars really. I rate it 4 because it's the first review of this album and 3 is too few. If you are not into the pst rock this is non-essential, but if you look for a taste of the genre this is a good start point.