ONES & ZEROS - VOLUME 0

Once there was a Ones & Zeros: vol. 1 one would assume it was part of a duopoly or maybe trilogy. So the wait was longer than one would imagine but Vol. 0 (see what they did there?) finally rears its head here in the spring of '18 and one wonders if it was worth the wait. I can report that it was.

Firstly, does the album feel like part of Vol. 1, as if it could be listened to before or after seamlessly? Not necessarily. It's been said that Vol. 0 is a prequel and you notice the difference pretty quickly. Gone are the announcements from Valhalla Biotech-the otherworldly mega corporation that talks and tries to sell you life extension and an afterlife in the cloud with jingles and SFX. This album is seamless with songs dovetailing into each other but sans SFX and talking but for one philosophy reading by a child tying in with the theme of that song only. The lyrical themes and issues dealt with on this new album are less far-fetched and more happening now or on the cusp.

We are treated immediately to an overture that recalls melodies from almost every song on Vol. 1 and teases a few themes from Vol. 0 like a quick moment of slide guitar from "Unintended Consequence", a keyboard solo during the music from the chorus of "Connecting" and a tease of the opening guitar melody from "Olympia" toward the end. There are probably more easter eggs in there to find to be honest. It's name "Re1nstall_0verture" reads like computer programming language and of course has a 1 and 0 in it so it's well named and does its job of bringing you back into the world of the albums.

The song segues right into "Connecting" which seems to be about an obnoxious internet troll and has a bit of cussing for good measure in its post chorus. This song doesn't really move the entire story along but seems to be more about introducing a character. Still the chords in the chorus really show an anger that you don't get a lot in this band's music so it's a bit eye opening in that regard as it's quite different.

Another character comes to the fore in "Olympia"-a "life assistant"-i.e. robot-that the singer seems to become smitten with only to find out her A.I. gets the best of him. By the end of the song he puts her out of service and regrets it. Despite its similarity to the story of the Spike Jonze movie Her, I'm still on board with its message.

Next comes "The Future Doesn't Need You" which seems to feel a bit like the earlier 3RDegree with it's outro's heaviness and stop/start band tight as ever, but with more wisdom and lyrics that hint at there being a group of people somewhere who are trying to live off the grid in some way.

A wee bit of orchestration makes its way onto various songs and none more obvious than the short & sweet "Unintended Consequence" with it's chorus that's really a verse kind of thing and a co-lead octave apart vocal between lead singer George Dobbs and MoeTar's singer Moorea Dickason. Her presence makes you wonder if another character is being represented by her being on the track but the lyrics seem to work as an overarching theme for the album-possibly even both albums. "Be careful when you're screwing with all these sort of things like cloning, life extension, A.I. and all the kind of stuff that can bite us all in the ass if we're not careful." The song feels very Jellyfishy or like Jason Faulkner or any of the things they were influenced by like Pilot, ELO or Badfinger and of course The Beatles before them.

Another pop song albeit with very dark overtones given the subject matter-is "Perfect Babies" which like "Olympia" before it-really feels like late 70's, early 80's art rock pop like Wax UK or later synth-laden bands like Tears For Fears. The outro sounds like smooth 70's AOR.

Now a full on change of pace for the rest of the album begins with "Logical Conclusion". The band is firing on all cylinders here with some of the busiest bass lines, guitar lines and keyboard work the band's ever done but hooks all over the place which is strange because after the band gives you an A and B section the entire song is taken over by a long dual guitar/keyboard solo which starts quiet and builds and builds to a climax taking a few turns along the way and finally gets back to the themes at the beginning for the finale.

And if that wasn't enough we're then led into what is really the first "epic" of 3RDegree's 25+ year existence-"Click Away!" clocking in at over 15 minutes and with 3 drastically different sections. The first section is quiet and brooding while the "hit single" comes in part 2's "Click Farm" with it's violin and bucolic feel of Pink Floyd meets McCartney's RAM. It all ends off with some really heavy riffing which has a great breakdown section and a reprise of part one.

Ending off the two album journey is the title track "Ones & Zeros" which makes you think that they held onto this song forever for the payoff here. This is like 3RDegree's "Layla' with it's drastically different first half and a second half full off overlapping guitar solos almost like the aforementioned "Layla" or XTC's "Books Are Burning".

The album although different is a solid counterpart to its other half and worth checking out.