ONES & ZEROS - VOLUME 0

After knowing the band with the previous Ones & Zeros: Vol. 1 (yes, the knot in the brain is purposeful), this was another of the albums for which I craved for, since it would be the album that closed the binary's concept.

Re1nstall_0verture, instrumental that opens the album, promises that we will embark on an amazing journey. Recovers melodic motifs presented in the previous episode and introduces new ones that will appear later. Frenethical and challenging rhythm. Connecting follows, with similar strength to the initial theme, reinforcing the good premonitions for an album full of ideas. However, it follows Olympia, the theme that jammed this album a bit. Not sure what, but it seems to reach to an anti-climax that I can not describe. Maybe it's the vocal line or the way the verses do not fit the chorus...What I know is that this song got me off the album for a couple of times. A shame.

However, The Future Doesn't Need You returns to show the band in shape. Well articulated verses and choruses, with a tonic / repetition in the title of the theme, something that works out very well, before the instrumental moments. Unintended Consequence is another highlight, this time with a feminine presence enriching the sound palette and with very good lyrics ('I'm an unintended consequence-the result of all your overconfidence You're a victim of your own success' ). Perfect Babies is that pop balm that the album has, but as with everything this band plays, nothing is as simple as it sounds. In a ternary environment, we are blessed with some interesting syncopations that elevate this seemingly simple theme to a plateau of excellence.

And finally, the last trio of this album is the best that was done in 2018 and one of the great reasons for this album to have conquered me. Logical Conclusion is brutal, not only because of the message it conveys ('Why deny what we are?'), but because of the instrumental part in the background is sublime. The reinvention of the song twice, disarms the most prepared of the listeners. Click Away! is the band saying that it can also be 'prog' when they want, traveling more than 15 minutes through an exceptional song and instrumental moments to be mesmerized. Finally, Ones & Zeros is the closing of the concept, in which what I like mostly is the vocal melody and the forms that it assumes throughout the song.

3RDegree are another band that excels at the difference in 'prog', above all by not wanting to be a band that sounds like something from the 70s. They incorporate elements of the golden decade, but they sound like the '10s. And I hope it continues for many years to come.