QUARTERS !

One of only two 2015 album releases from these psychedelic Aussies, Quarters ! shows a much more organized, cohesive, and diversified jam band than before.

1. "The River" (10:10) almost a Dave Brubeck "Take Five" feel to this one! I love the laid back singing and groove--the way Stu sings following his own guitar note-play. The jazzed-up instrumental section set to its Latin rhythm track in the fourth and fifth minutes is awesome! The emptyied-out passage in the sixth minute is a bit unusual, but I suppose it supplies (in the true jazz sense) a decent segue back to the singing motif. Love the "The River" shouts punctuating the back during the eighth minute before the next descent into quietude--and then the SANTANA-like slow jam to close out the song. Nice job! (18.25/20)

2. "Infinite Rise" (10:10) a little too monotonous with its eight minutes of repetitious two-chord guitar-strum-and- vocal cadence and intermittent animal noises. Could've come from a GRATEFUL DEAD concert jam. (15.75/20)

3. "God Is in the Rhythm" (10:10) recorded as if from the early 1960s--British R&B-influenced rock--something like The Pretty Things or The Yardbirds might've done. It's very interesting as a retro-replicant, but not so much for bringing anything new to the 21st Century (though I do like the Jerry Garcia-like guitar work in the choruses and instrumental interludes). (17.5/20)

4. "Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer" (10:10) The vocals of this gently swaying psychedelic music remind me a little bit of ARCADE FIRE or THE ANNUALS; the feel of the music like some of WEST INDIAN GIRL or PERPLEXA's more sedate stuff. A very pleasant, engaging song for the first five minutes. Then a kind of break occurs before we return to a prolonged instrumental section using pretty much the same pace and rhythms as the first half. Definitely a laid back Australian beach song. (17.75/20)

Total Time 40:40

Hard to believe this is the same band that did I'm in Your Mind Fuzz the year before! Though still a little loose in a GRATEFUL DEAD-like jam-tradition, there are some fine construction and instrumental performances here.

B+/four stars; a wonderfully refreshing journey into retro-psych rock and quite an improvement on their previous year's releases. Highly recommended!

After the success of "I'm In Your Mind Fuzz" from 2014 the band decides to put that high energy, sing-a-long styled music aside until 2016 and 2017 and go all mellow on us in 2015. Releasing this album "Quarters!" and "Paper Mache Dream Balloon" where get some easy listening music that is very melodic and light.

I prefer "Paper Mache Dream Balloon" but it's barely 4 stars for me. It is more consistent though as an album while "Quarters!" named so because we get four 10 minute and 10 second tracks therefore "Quarters!" reaches higher because of the song "The River" a concert favourite. In fact it's on a third of the 15 live records shown on the site here by this band. I like this song, just a feel good piece of music, quite laid back and trippy.

It's the other three songs that I have difficulty with to the point of giving this 3 stars. And when I'm not that into a track and it feels like the band is dragging it along to get to that 10 minute and 10 second finish line, well, no this is a 3 star record in my world. But again most prefer this one of the two so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

This one is for the people who are into more prog-indie-psychadelic (though this album only dabbles in prog). It's a pretty good album considering this is pretty much their second indie album. I appreciated the thematic and structural constraints that they put themselves to make this album, seeing as how each song is 10 minutes and 10 seconds. This constraint works to the favor and dismay of the album because for me it's a fun little album that's split into quarters, but also one that feels like it stretches on for just a bit too long.

The River is 5/4 through the first 8 minutes and generally is just a solid piece, fun dorian groove and solid melody. The last 2 minutes for me are where the song genuinely shines, seeing a shift to 4/4 with the groove changing to a more head bopping one (for me at least). Has the issue of being a bit tedious, more on that in the end.

Infinite Rise kind of reads like a children's story with the lyrics all being the same rhythms, and it generally is just a fun song. Very chill song, and the sound effects really add on to the song and the kind of silly nature of it. Has the same issue with being a bit tedious.

God Is In The Rhythm is probably my least favourite, with the progression of 1-6-2-5 and the vocals being too strained for my liking. This one really doesn't introduce any new ideas, but it does also have a decent melody, also tedious. Highlight is the solo's, the bass solo is great, and interesting that the drums go way into the background during them.

Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer is my personal favourite on the album, and up there with some of my favourite Gizz songs. It's just a great song, very floaty and very fun riffs being played during the song. The pick scraping with reverb works to great effect here, adding to the aerial feeling. It goes basically all the way through besides the chorus just doing a 1-5 and it's simple but nice with the bass line in this one. This one is a little more varied and gives itself a little more space to breathe with the intro/middle phrygian sections.

Some other things of note: This was the start of the albums being entirely connected (besides Eyes Like The Sky, which is the only one I don't intend on listening to). This also kind of cemented their more Indie side, and would be further developed in Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. The drums are mixed in a really interesting way, and I'm not sure if this is just me only noticing this now, but each of the kits for Eric and Cavs are panned slightly to the left and right and will transition between each other. I noticed this in Nonagon, but I didn't know this was on earlier albums like this.

Issues: It just goes on for too long for me. The songs don't have enough justification for how they're formed and it gets a little tiring hearing the same stuff for 10 minutes with really only minor change in the lyrics. The mixing in the early albums was never my favourite, this kind of grainy older feeling mix worked for the garage rock albums like Mind Fuzz and Nonagon, but for the indie stuff it was never that great.

I give this one 3 stars because it's sort of forgettable when mentioning their huge catalogue, but it's not bad music. Just a little too much of the same.