CARBON-BASED ANATOMY

Cynic's 2011 EP Carbon Based Anatomy could be considered as a lead up to this years Kindly Bent To Free Us full length album but I feel that it stands on it's own. Long gone are the growling vocals and heavier sound of 2007's Traced In Air and the electronic/progressive reworkings found on the 2010 EP Re-Traced. While Paul Masvidal and company seemed to struggle to find a defining sound on the afore mentioned, CBA comes with a fully formed eastern toned spiritual vision. Starting off with guest's Amy Correia's chant like vocals floating atop washes of floating synths on album opener Amidst The Coals, we are soon transitioning into the title track with a fade in of Sean Reinert's and Sean Malone's Syncopated drums and bass with the ex-Gordian Knot bass man demonstrating his amazing finger speed with Masvidal laying down some heavy synth chords and a muscular guitar solo. The instrumental Bija is a clichéd Eastern tinged instrument with faux tabla, sitar, and the like and it is the EP's low point. Box Up My Bones starts off with Masvidal's slow chiming achingly beautiful guitar chords with another drum and bass fade in but this time with Reinert decisively invoking a synthesis of prog drummers from Bruford, Cobham to Peart with heavy rythyms that are fascinating without ever sounding derivative. Elves Beam Out is more of a straight up prog rock song with a heavy beat the fades into the ambient closer, Hieroglyph, which again features guest vocals from Amy Correia, this time in a spoken word tome. Correia's two guest tracks take nothing away from Masvidal who has greatly improved as a vocalist and grows ever more melodic. CBA is only 23 minutes long but it's a great "come down" album that I would recommend after playing any intense music or even by itself. Just breath in and out slowly and concentrate on your breaths.