EDIT PEPTIDE

According to the label, Bubblemath are an Eclectic Prog / Avant-Pop / Technical Metal Quintet, while Prog Archives simply call them "eclectic". In my humble opinion, they're both correct, and wrong. When I put this on the player I knew immediately what this style of music was, namely "pronk". Yes boy and girls, at long last we have a band that is determined to keep the name "Cardiacs" alive and kicking. A mere short fifteen years since the debut, the line-up (who got together in 1998) is still the same, they just had a small issues getting this finished. I'm sure they haven't' been recording full-time for the last fifteen years, but there are times when the listener wonders how on earth they managed to move from point A to point B in a song, as this is complex, tight, and completely off the wall.

Don't try to work out what time signature a certain piece of a song may be in, or what chord structure they are using, and instead just relish the total insanity and musical chaos of what is going on. They use a (fairly) straightforward musical line-up, just use the instruments in somewhat unusual manners. The quintet is Blake Albinson (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon string guitar, keyboards, tenor sax, vocals), Jay Burritt (electric bass, fretless synth bass, fretless electric bass, upright electric bass, vocals), Kai Esbensen (keyboards, vocals), James Flagg (drums, percussion, vocals) and Jonathan G. Smith (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute, clarinet, chimes, gong, glockenspiel, xylophone, mountain dulcimer, mandolin, banjo). Yes, they all sing.

I love this album, it's just plain awesome, although I can pretty much guarantee you won't be singing any of the songs, although they somehow manage to be melodic as well as, well, weird. Zappa would love these guys, who also have a hint of Specimen 37 in what they are doing, and if you want something so far out of both normal mainstream, and the progressive mainstream, then this is going to be worth discovering.

A sophomore album release 15 years after their debut! This can only happen in Minnesota! This amazing music reminds me of bands like 3RDegree, Echolyn, The Tea Club, Frogg Café, The Cardiacs, and Gentle Giant--only these guys might be better! Top notch musicianship, complex and quirky compositions with lots of sudden and unexpected dynamic shifts, presenting lyrics that are very humorous while being head-on with their biting socio-political commentary.

1. "Routine Maintenance" (12:41) comparisons to bands like NATIVE CONSTRUCT and HAKEN are warranted here. The busy background and singing/lyric don't seem to fit as well as other songs here, but these guys can play! At the three minute mark it seems as if Todd Rundgren snuck in, then it goes all flowery, syrupy with a flute-led section. The vocal performance here is quite nice. This singer could have quite a career as a pop singer or on the Broadway stage. Somewhat Gentle Giant-like. Then it goes seriously jazz-fusion--shades of Jaco Pastorius tickling my ears. Nice mixing of the multiple tracks of lead electric guitar (or is it just one guitar phased through multiple chorus pedals?)! How all of the band members can remain so tightly glued to the constant twists and turns of this song is beyond my comprehension. The shift to djenty prog metal at the 8:00 mark is awesome--astonishing! The dénouement at 9:38 is sheer prog perfection! Anybody else hear flashes of AMBROSIA c.1976, first album, here? (9/10)

2. "Avoid That Eye Candy" (3:53) an okay song that is carried more by its clever lyric. (8/10)

3. "Perpetual Notion" (6:56) opens with very staccato instrumental performances weaving their support of the jazzy mathematic vocal. When the instruments begin to sustain their sounds a little more in the second half of the third minute things begin to actually slip a little. The RUSH instrumental section at the end of the fourth minute is a little obvious. But then the King Crimson-like guitar weave that plays up till the next vocal section. A multiple voice weave begins around 5:30 but then as quickly desists, leaving the original vocalist and his jumpy delivery to finish the song. Not my favorite. (8.5/10)

4. "A Void That I Can Depart To" (10:07) the smooth music and singing at the start of this one are such a refreshing change (reprieve) from those of the previous song. As the song amps up into its full-blown instrumental sound it just as suddenly switches to a kind of white-man's Rasta beat before switching back to --with multiple voices singing the lyric. This sound so much as if you mixed RUSH, QUEEN, GENTLE GIANT, and HALL & OATES into one band/sound! The second, and more prominent, appearance of the faux/tongue-in-cheek death metal growls. Hilarious! Almost too much going on in this one to make it memorable or totally lovable. The bands MOON SAFARI and THE GABRIEL CONSTRUCT come to mind in the sixth minute. Some quite stage-worthy vocal theatrics in the eighth and ninth minutes. Nice nod to GENESIS with the ending. (9/10)

5. "Get a Lawn" (6:20) What a lyric! What music! Even the faux death metal growls are hilarious! Quite similar to some of work on 3RDEGREE's last two albums, Ones & Zeroes, Vol. 1 and The Long Division. (9/10)

6. "Making Light Traffic" (8:58) Joined to the previous song by the sounds of night cricket song, the muted "radio" play that enshrouds the opening 1:15 is a bit unusual--setting us up for the moment when the music "breaks through/out of" the "radio" and into a more normal stereo sonic scape. The music has a heavier low end edge to it while at the same time supporting the use of mandolin and tenor sax. The lull in the sixth minute leads into a wildly dynamic and exciting section that plays out till 7:43 when another lulling section leaves us back into the cricket-diffused nightscape. (9/10)

7. "Destiny Repeats Itself" (7:23) opens with an almost Soul/R&B/Adult jazz teasing sound--fretless bass and quick high octave guitar chord strums. Very sultry, seductive. Then the singing joins in with some other instruments and it turns more 90120 YES-like--but then it goes UTOPIA Ikon on us! Some other reviewer mentioned the amazing job the engineers/producers did with the mixing of these songs. This is nowhere so apparent as on this song. Incredible clarity and definition for each and every instrument. Amazing bass play in the fourth and fifth minutes. Jay Burritt, you have my attention! Some nice guitar shredding to follow. Such an unusual, refreshing, remarkable song! (10/10)

8. "The Sensual Con" (7:36) melodic, dynamic, catchy, instrumentally intimidating, this is just a great song, great ending to a great album. (9/10)

Sorry for the sparse song descriptions but the music is so busy, so complex, so unusual, and so fast-changing that it'd take weeks to write anything justified. This is just music, an album, that simply must be heard to be believed (and appreciated). The intellectual and meaningful lyrics are worth some study, too, I believe.

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music. This one is so close to being five stars--it FEELS like it should be five stars. Keep posted: I may upgrade it as I get to know it more. Those first and last songs are real growers.