This is a time where I revisit past releases by bands I like, and this is the part 2 to a wonderful Math rock band that really know how fool around with time signatures, play with your perception and rock your world upside down. Maybe a reminder of how much I liked them?

It was back in December 2010 when Halifax-based band Wot Gorilla? released their second EP called New Arrival with four songs that describe better what’s in the soul of every band member in mysterious ways, just as the EP cover, the one that was brought to physical existence bearing a rather interesting drawing. It’s that kind of art that could puzzle your mind so bad that you would think twice before taking that airplane to visit your Grandma.

This band released in 2009 their first EP (named EP, by the way) and when seen through the eyes of this new delivery, important changes in their music as progressions are found; it’s maybe a sort of deepest integration among sounds, a different kind of music cohesion.

Melodies continue in a thread that shows the purest Math Rock style, but this time there’s this extra element of sound as breaks, effects and vocals that create a point of convergence, and then become the harmony that just makes you feel the goose bumps.

‘Fear of Flying’ is the opening track. I ought to adore the bass line in this one! Each element in the puzzle matches perfectly, despite the fact that it may sound like chaos at a first glance. Melodies find their right path to follow each other and create a uniform beam and yes, this is a perfect way to describe each sound by this band: like rays of light that follow erratic patterns, but at some point meet with each other to form a prism with perfect and straight beams lighting exactly at your geography, the one that gets deeply touched with their music. In my case, it was straight to my chest.

Unpredictable has been the only rule to Math Rock, and despite its alleged capacity of making you feel nothing but ‘huh?’ once you listen to it, I find these four tracks permeated with the essence of a mind-heart fight, where steady reason becomes the standard patch of this quilt, while heart and passion become the pounding, unstable doubt and blurry embroidery that would lead a soul to confusion, and sometimes to inaction.

The path goes on and still offers nothing but the unexpected factor, and yet builds reference points at will, no doubt it’s at a personal level. This experience is given musically through full stops or changes in time signature, right when chaos / order unleash, then flat structures are written down (ironically made of a steep notes selection), those that would let you get your breath back to your lungs. A good example for this is ‘Shoes for Traction’, track no. 4. You certainly know that each point would lead to a shape eventually…

This EP includes four songs only, which are as well an exploration of melodies and upside-downs like waterfalls, as a road with many detours and choices in front of us, it’s like indecision made music to the path that we expect would lead us to a real learning experience.

When it comes to it, the experience becomes the trip itself, like just don’t knowing our final destination but learning new feelings and thoughts inadvertently. Maybe there’s a part of this conflict that won’t let us fly, maybe mind and heart don’t have to fight, unless we want a plane crash like the one in the New Arrival cover.

Excellent EP!

Words: Tonan

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