VOLUME TWO

It's there! Almost a year after Volume One hit the top lists Perhaps are back with their second highly eclectic one-song album: Volume Two. I've been wondering for a long time what this album was going to sound like; more post-rock structures? More mathy jamming? More ambient parts? More psych influences? Well, it turns out it has all of that. Volume Two compresses the entire Volume One(with actual reprises) and more in just half an hour of music. Sounds great, but does it sound great?

The album starts off with over six minutes of ambient electronics. So that's just like V1, but with four minutes extra. Still, this is an intro that deserves to be longer for containing a lot of saxophone madness, the keyboard play of Cotton Casino('Super Cotton', keyboardist, vocalist and beer & cigarettist of the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.), who creates a tranquilizing pulse beat as well as waving synth lines later on, like those used at most of early AMT's music, and some rumbling bass notes near the end.

After that there's a long part of warm math rock, with many V1 reprises made softer by the changing some pitches and mixing down the drum line. There are still some freak out Cotton synths in the background cooperating to the psychedelic sound they are clearly trying to achieve.

Around 11:30 the math rock turns into full psych rock as the synths take the lead over sonic drum and bass play. Two minutes later the synths stop and turn into a smashing guitar solo which lasts for over six minutes, which is way too long.

Then it takes on an indie/post-rockish melody for a while, then falls back into the jazzy math rock from before the solos, and then it goes back to post-ish space rock. This might just be the best part of the album; it's well-organized, melodic and interesting. It goes in an emotional crescendo(post-rock) for circa six minutes and then ends in weird electronic sounds.

This is not the V2 I expected. Too many influences were trying to be compressed into the music, and the music itself doesn't seem to be too well-considered. The intro is slightly too long, the math rock takes too long, and the guitar solo definitely takes too long. Also, the mix of raging psych rock and complex math rock isn't done well, and it just sounds messy.

Still, the album is epic, unique(because highly eclectic) and at times melodic, which makes that this is still far from a bad record. Multiple listens just showed me that it lacks most balance, and it doesn't really improve over V1. Enjoy, but don't expect a masterpiece.