ONES & ZEROS - VOLUME 1

One of the things I had to get used to in this album is the 'scantly clad' music presented here: there are very few added layers or fluffy fills and incidentals in these songs. Each song feels rather stripped down, bare, and naked. And clean. The drums feel live. The vocals feel live. The acoustic guitars feel live. Like the recently released CORVUS STONE surprise, Unscrewed, 3RDegree seems to have gravitated to a pre-computerized recording/engineering style--which I love! Every sound is crystal clear and feeling as if you are in the room with it-- as if the band is playing live, in the same room, with each other. Other than ECHOLYN, STEELY DAN, early DAVID BOWIE, or the occasional flash of CARAVAN or PETER MURPHY, I can't find myself feeling many immediate associations with the music on Ones & Zeros. It's just good, unusual, fresh and original music--on the pop side of prog. Lyrically, once again 3RDegree comes through with a masterfully cogent presentation of one of the current 'pink elephants' in the room of human civilization. They get you thinking about some of the many signs of increasingly imminent decay and death, get you asking 'How should we behave, how should we think? What should we do?' The fake adverts used to tie each song together are more focused on the ludicrous, hollow and double-edged promises of science and technology, like the 'advances' of bioengineering and medicine. It is obvious that the band wants us to think. I love it! They remind me of the Lacuna Corporation ads in the 2004 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Like STEVEN WILSON, 3RDegree seems brave enough to be willing to point a mirror on some of the most sensitive, touchy subjects of our modern 'civilized' lives and world. Bravo! and kudos to them! Like their previous album, 2012's The Long Division, 3RDegree have produced an album that has totally taken me by surprise. And, also like The Long Division, I find Ones & Zeros growing on me with each listen. Wonderful stuff! Check it out!

Favorite songs: They're all wonderful but personally I like: the mostly instrumental 9. 'We Regret to Inform You' (5:23); the piercing indictments of 6. 'Circuit Court' (5:19), 7. 'Life at Any Cost' (8:49), and 8. 'What It Means to Be Human' (5:31); 2. 'The Gravity' (7:51); 4. 'Life' (3:08), 5. 'The Best & Brightest' (4:06), and the tongue-in-cheek anthem, 10. 'More Life' (5:33).

Though this is definitely the poppier side of prog (and thus the "crossover" designation), the cleverness of the lyrics and the charming, upbeat sophistication of the music make this, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece of progressive rock music.