POLVO - IN PRISM (Merge Records)

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I have never really been sure exactly what "math rock" is but I can tell you that, according to this new album, Polvo is slightly more melodic and dramatic than contemporaries like Shellac and Sweep The Leg Johnny. In Prism is the first Polvo full length since 1997's Shapes. Without my own sense of history, Polvo sounds to me like the modern indie rock version of a 70s progressive band like Yes with a minor case of the space-pop sickness that inflicted other luminaries of that decade like Alan Parsons Project or perhaps 10CC.

The opening track, "Right The Relation", may sound like a math rock banquet with it's multiple courses of alternate time signatures and abrupt bridges, yet it comes across more fit-induced than being technically sound. It's not all algebra after track one, however, as songs like "D.C. Trails" and "City Birds" brings a more emotional, less cerebral side of Polvo. Further down the album is the cosmic march, "The Pedlar", that hits the gray matter hard like it had been led by members of Monster Magnet during one of their primitive celestial trips.

The most pleasantly surprising experience I received from listening to the 8 songs from In Prism is that the album flows well and I never seemed disturbed or tired of any of the 5-minute-plus jams.


Clicking >>HERE<< will give you a pop-up player where you can hear samples from In Prism.

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