The more I listen to music the harder it is for me to
feel blown away by a new band or album, not just as a music critic but as a
music fan. I’m always searching, though, for that elusive discovery of aural
magic that sweeps me off my feet and transports me to places I never even knew
existed; that incredible moment when previously unimaginable sounds cause my
pulse to race and electric shivers to run down the length of my spine. The
Physics House Band, quite to my surprise and delight, have done just that.
Their sound is a difficult one to pin down, but I’ll try
my best. Plucking the finest elements of 70s prog-rock and blending them with
modern indie and post-rock sensibilities, they have created an astoundingly
compelling genre all of their own: it’s psychedelic and progressive, rock and
jazz, luxurious and experimental, discordant and harmonious, sprawling yet
tightly-executed. All at the same time. It’s breathtaking.
ObeliskMonolith
beings powerfully, and carries on in deliriously bombastic fashion, before
single Abraxical Solapse kicks in
with gloriously noodly guitars. Each of the opening songs is inventive with
their melodies, full of complex mathematical rhythms that weave their way in
and around the central themes, each layer adding something new and interesting
to the music.
The serene Hollow
Mountain follows, predominantly keyboard-led, as a mid-EP reprieve from the
Brighton trio’s sheer creative force. Next, Teratology
combines this delicateness with the complexities of the preceding tracks,
creating a wonderful juxtaposition between the two sides of the band. Stark
piano chords are then scattered throughout sparse track The Spectral Beyond, before closer Titan erupts in a tremendous explosion of synthesisers, guitars
and drums.
The Physics House Band play prog music for the indie
generation, and they play it very well indeed. Horizons/Rapture is an exceptional debut and heralds, I hope, even
greater things to come.
Horizons/Rapture by The Physics House
Band is out on Blood & Biscuits/Pink Mist on the 15th of April
2013.
ES
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