3RDEGREE

I have long been a fan of American prog outfit 3RDegree, who I have feel have never really gained the attention they deserve, yet had not previously come across the debut album. I decided it was time to correct that omission, so have been playing it quite a lot recently. Recorded between 1990 and 1992 it was mostly finished in 1991 but not released until 1993 when it came out on cassette. Originally it only contained 10 songs, but is now available digitally with 16, the rest being bonus songs and/or songs recorded with Robert on lead vocals. Back then the band was a trio of Pat Kliesch (guitars, backing vocals), Robert James Pashman (bass, keyboards, lead and backing vocals) and Rob Durham (drums, backing vocals, acoustic guitar). It was not until 1995 they decided they would bring in another lead singer in the form of George Dobbs, by which time they had already been playing the songs which would become 'Human Interest Story'.

Listening to the album some 30 years after it was originally released, it is difficult to imagine it is actually that old as it still sounds very relevant today. 3RDegree have always had a quite different approach to many other prog bands, and I have often referred to City Boy being a major influence on their sound, but that is more so with the later releases and not so much with this one. I am somewhat surprised they felt the need to bring in a new singer as Robert is a fine singer in his own right, so I guess it must have been more about live presence with a singer who was not also playing instruments as opposed to anything to do with the vocals. The fretless bass is an important facet of the overall sound, contrasting warmly with the more staccato and aggressive approach of the guitar and attack of the drums, while James is nice and clean above it all. In some ways I am somewhat reminded of Mr So & So, and there is a certain naivety within which makes this a fascinating release in many ways. The songs have a strong pop element mixed with the prog, the result being something which is remarkably listenable and enjoyable on the first time of playing.

It may often be overlooked when compared with their other albums but there is no doubt this is an album which progheads who enjoy a more commercial pop rock approach to their prog as this is fun from beginning to end.

There is no doubt in my mind that one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated progressive rock bands around is America's 3RDegree. Over the years they have been incredibly consistent, and while I have not heard the debut album (so consequently have not reviewed it), I have given all the other five maximum marks, so it is safe to say I am a fan. There is something about their commercial progressive sound with wonderful harmonies which really gets to me and many others. The first album of theirs I heard was 2012's 'The Long Division', and I was blown away by a sound which reminded me so much of City Boy ? that review got the band to check them out as they had never previously heard them, and it also made sense to them! I also need to thank fellow beer aficionado and bassist/keyboard player Robert James Pashman for instilling in me a love of trappiest ales.

So what is this compilation, and why does it say it covers the years 1990-2020 when it starts with a recording from 2011? That song, "The World In Which We Lived", originally appeared on their debut album back in 1993 when they were a trio with some guests and Robert provided the vocals, and was then re-recorded in 2010 with George. It is the commencement of a journey in chronological order, with virtually every song remixed, taken from all their releases over the years. The set also contains three hidden tracks, which cannot be streamed but are part of the download, and these three replace three other songs on the CD if the physical version is purchased. It is safe to say that one of these is the finest bringing together of two songs which share the same title I have ever heard and will be guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone who knows them.

With their two most recent albums being their most successful, and both of them being concept albums with the second being a continuation of the first, it does mean there is a certain lack of continuity within this compilation, but there is no doubt it is a wonderful collection of songs and a great way of finding out about one of America's finest commercial crossover prorgressive bands who have an innate sense of melody to combine hooks with intricacy in easy to enjoy songs which are always fun and full of life.

Well, this is such an unnecessary release- anything that's at best mediocre has already been done to death by the majority of prog groups out there. I initially checked out the album as I saw it was in the top 25 crossover prog records, and remembering that I wasn't repelled by 3rdegree on my previously listen of Ones and Zeros volume 1 (they still didn't leave a strong impression) I thought I'd give them another chance. However, like many of these slightly esoteric new releases, the ProgArchives rating algorithm permits this to be above ALL Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Radiohead, Pavlov's Dog, Procol Harum etc within this subgenre alone. I've been away from the ProgArchives community for some time especially regarding reviews, but this really needs some correcting. Harmonically, lyrically and timbrally completely unstimulating, without any remotely notable technicality, production or compositional skills to hold it up. Merely another revivalist album but one that sounds like a dull, bastardised combination of B-sides from the Big Six maybe. Perhaps acceptable if this emerged in the neo-prog scene around the time of Marillion but for 2018?!

Very low 2/5 rating. 'Best' moments probably the overture, and some sections in 'Click Away' although it's unnecessarily lengthy, worst moments in 'Olympia' and 'perfect babies', mainly since they're probably the weakest lyrically (Olympia does have a nice twist on a backdoor cadence that repeats but doesn't exploit it effectively at all). Never again.

Volume 1 (2015) of 3RDegree's Ones & Zeros portrayed a futuristic, transhumanist society and promised a second installment. What the band delivered in 2018 was far superior to a would-be "Volume 2" -- we now instead have Volume 0, not a sequel but more of a companion prequel. Volume 0 is rooted in the technological present, suggesting how humanity might wend its careless way toward the ostensibly exciting but intrinsically bleak world of Volume 1.

In my Volume 1 review, I wished aloud that Ones & Zeros had been released complete rather than in halves. I was wrong. Against all odds, the separateness of these two volumes actually strengthens their unification, offering listeners the welcome option to enjoy the pair in two different but equally effective sequences. Personally I'm glad to have heard Volume 1 first: with this nonlinear trajectory I was forced to make assumptions about what would follow, only to have deeper layers peeled away as the underlying realities of Volume 0 came to light and challenged my assumptions. Throughout Volume 0 (which I would argue is the slightly stronger of the two) are plenty of moments that foreshadow the inevitable "logical conclusion" that is Volume 1. Of course, one can just as easily focus on either individual album at a time; each stands well enough alone despite containing many clever references to the other.

Yes, the uniquely versatile structure of Ones & Zeros is one of its main triumphs -- but 3RDegree knows that structure and theme alone are not enough to carry an album (or especially two). Fortunately for us, these lofty overarching ideas are held together by terrific songs. The music's primary purpose is to support the thoughtful lyrics, but the music itself is tight, melodic, and beautifully nuanced, with many of the lush vocal harmonies we've come to expect from this sextet. If the opening riff of "Re1nstall_0verture" doesn't start your blood flowing and synapses firing, please check your pulse because Valhalla Biotech may already have stripped you of your soul. And ultimately that may be the point of this whole thing: Volume 0's closer claims, somewhat ironically, that "It's always been binary code...This magic's only ones and zeros." Yet if the endlessly thrilling potential of our technology has left us feeling more disconnected than ever, it just might be time to rediscover our humanity and find our way back to ourselves.

The future DOES need you -- and it needs more great music like this to keep sentient beings awake.

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.

So it is the end of the year and I've left the most daunting task of it to the end, afraid of tackling how to describe into words my favorite Album of the Year. But I've got less than three days as of this writing so I suppose there is no time better than the present.

Which is exactly what 3RDegree's latest offering to the Musical Gods of the Universe tackles itself, various subject matters that deal with the present while casting both a wary eye and a broad shadow over the future. A scary future. And one that I'm aligned with, for better. Or for worse.

Take for example the 5th track of what I have come to embrace is their magnum opus, Ones & Zeroes - Volume 0, entitled Logical Conclusion. Clocking in at 6:40, this is a luscious, synth-laden tour de force which probably has my overall favorite drum track of the album, this coming from former long time Drummer Aaron Nobel with George Dobbs proclaiming on "behalf" of God while dreamy keyboards are hovering over... "And so said God "Let us make man in our image to rule the air and sea over all the earth and all its creatures moving on the ground"... setting the groundwork for the chilliest song, lyrically-wise, to my ears: "Why deny what we are? On the brink of a solution - a logical conclusion. The best and brightest - all consequence be damned-along with their disciples... ". This ties it directly to One & Zeros Volume 1 released in 2015 via the song Life At Any Cost and the juxtaposition of the two albums seems to make a lot of sense when all is said and done, to my ears a stunning achievement, I being generally of the camp that "concept" albums usually fail to maintain its goal totally throughout the recorded material. But I think 3RDegree pulled it off. With Track 3, Olympia, being a prime example.

But I digress because Logical Conclusion requires a logical conclusion to its review, which starts with its main melody breakdown just short of the two minute mark and goes into a very ominous Robert James Pashman Bass line which is then matched by Dobbs on keys and Noble on drums until the 3:20 mark, where George starts to coo "True-only few can survive through the oncoming twilight. We only seek the better life we were promised. Why did they all lie? We won't be denied-this is our time..." and the iron fisting begins. This segues into the most exciting "bridge" back into the main melody of the song at the four minute mark with the guitars chiming in a beautiful, almost "Japanese" like melody, starting to point-counter pointing at the 5:10 mark and riding the wave excitement thru its "logical conclusion" at the 6:40 mark. This is heady stuff that continues to reveal itself thru tens and tens of listenings front to back since the album came out earlier in the year.

And the song that primarily sparked all those listenings was the aforementioned Olympia, which has since become my overall favorite 3RDegree song. I was not sure that was possible after 2012's brilliant The Long Division, which I totally fell in love with after 1st listening back in '12, so much so that I immediately played it a 2nd time to make sure I had heard what I thought I had heard the 1st time. I had... :) ...and started the platonic torrid love affair with the band, its members and their music.

So Olympia is about a love affair with a female artificial intelligent robotic partner. Novel idea, eh? But is it? Does it really seem that far fetched in 2018? Not to me it doesn't. And apparently not to its author:

"Olympia was her name-with a pliable polymer frame The cutting edge of design-the most promising of artificial minds A companion without a need who would follow my every lead And would always-always believe in me... "

Sounds like the perfect fairy tale, eh? Ah, but the story takes a detour while being laid out in as lush a setting as I've ever heard the band produce behind its words and the punch lines come in the most important lyrical lines of my 2018 and are sung as such:

"She figured out my deepest flaws - she wound me up like a machine She would not be my toy - I'd be her human being..."

Wham. bang, POW! The one-two lyrical upper jab to the jaw and I'm floored. As is the protagonist of the song:

"A high maintenance automaton - she's much more than an automaton Why didn't I shut her down and why is she still around? 
I guess I started to feel something toggled in my own programming And when I think about what I've done and even more about what I have not I seek forgiveness from Olympia I'm learning to understand-to share a life I finally see how I got it all wrong I'm learning to become a man - with open eyes And a man needs something more than just an automaton-much more than an automaton Olympia..."

This song highlights everything that is good and right about the band: A compelling story that unfolds from start to finish, lush instrumentation that is there to highlight and serve the story itself, beautiful lead and backing vocals that are always trying to "sell" the story and sneaky great and concise guitar playing throughout.

Those two songs were the 1st two favorites. The other seven come with their own individual charms. The opening track has become one of my all time favorite sub-four minute mark songs of all time. A clever juxtaposition of themes past (Volume 1) and present (Volume 0) works as rocker into Track 2, a brilliant satire on today's use of the internet entitled Connecting and its chorus:

"You just can't quit tonight - you are the [&*!#] tonight
..." with the satire and sarcasm positively dripping off George Dobbs' vocal delivery while Original and now Current Drummer Rob Durham keeping a steady beat throughout.

And while I'm here let me single out his efforts here as being IMHO my overall favorite vocals over an entire album. He uses his range to maximum effect, sweet at times, growling and spiteful at others. And the others, Robert James Pashman, Patrick Kliesch (also on Guitar), Bryan Ziegler (also on Guitar) and Eric Pseja (also on Guitar) present the backing vocals at the necessary heavenly levels required song to song and astonishingly also in concert, not an easy feat at the octave levels they are singing at to replicate in a live setting. No auto tuning here... :D !

Track 4, The Future Doesn't Need You, is another song that straddles the storyline between the two companion albums and one that features some fine interplay between the acoustic and electric guitar players and features the modern day dilemma:

"Unless you are living inside of my cloud I couldn't even help you if I wanted to now because The future doesn't need you at all..."

Track 5, Unintended Consequence, is a another brutal take on the future and its inevitable finger pointing:

"I'm an unintended consequence when the problem that you're facing is immense And the solution that you implement backfires badly and leads to something worse To the drawing board once more - and that's your curse..."

Track 8, Click Farm, is their "epic length" prog track, basically clocking in at double the length of any of their previously recorded output, almost 16 minutes, and it took me that long, LOL, to "get it" but once I did, wow. The song bobs and weaves through the 1st section, Positive Feedback Loop (One Click Away), with biting lyrics such as:

"I feel more alone with each friend I make Rejection is just one click away...", and continues the biting sarcasm in the 2nd section, Click Farm:

"We used to have a staff-well that's all in the past-we do it now with click bots Thank you click farm-we can optimize your visibility Thank you click farm-and soon you'll be a star..." and then totally starts to rock out in its 3rd and final section, Only Listen To This Section If You Truly Want Wealth And Security (LOLLOL!):

"We'll find out how smart you are-share it with all your friends-click here first for registration...". And the "[&*!#]" referred to in Connecting has now come to roost... :(

The 9th and final track, Ones & Zeroes, is a fine wrap up of the story of the album(s), ending with a bunch of one liners such as:

"Are you a one-are you a zero? Are you a yes or a no? Are you a sheep-are you a hero stuck in a binary code? Ones and zeros... 3:) "

In a year of fantastic Prog releases (my personal Top 3 are Ones & Zeros Volume 0, Pinnacle's To Whoever You Are Now and Steven Wilson's To The Bone) I'm thankful for the many many offerings available to us Prog fans nowadays but truly feel that Ones & Zeros earned the top spot this year with its magnificent songwriting and accompanying musicianship and if you haven't checked out this fine band or its music I would encourage you to do so. This is a progressive album that draws from many influences and delivers a sound all its own, one that continues to unfold through my ears as a fine wine improves with age... <3

Lyrics used by kind permission by its author and I suppose they should always be contacted, as I did prior to reprinting them, for the permission to reprint them, of which i was able to. By kind permission of... ;) <3

The "problem" with 3RDegree is they raise the bar-on themselves(!)-from album to album so much so that you think they've done the best they could with a release and it hits you the right way and you rate it highly. But then a few years pass and they cast a shadow on that album you loved with another one that is a notch more mature and accomplished. With most bands starting off strong and then petering our over time with crowds clamoring for "the old stuff", 3RDegree are in very much the opposite position. I think you either get these guys or you don't. Maybe some will straddle the fence but not many.

So the album I'm talking about is Ones & Zeros Volume 0 and it's a very pleasing hour plus long ride that's somehow all things thought provoking, melodic, complex and memorable. Somehow it's aurally timeless yet lyrically very much in the present-possibly a bit ahead of it!

I'm a bit late to the party here but finally got the other half of 3RDegree's Ones & Zeros 2 part conceptual work. Vol. 0 is different than Vol. 1 overall but you can probably jumble up the tunes in another way (like Big Big Train's Full Power) and be none the wiser. Just checked out my Vol. 1 review and I'd say all that I marveled over with that release holds true here and then some. Continued is the thing the band does that few other bands do where the DNA of the music is thoroughly 'prog' but the songcraft rules the day. The other thing is how economically sound the band is where this album almost reaches a full hour and you're not tired nor are you fed any filler. Even if you might not think one track is as great as another you notice it serves a purpose and makes the album better. Not sure if I attribute that to the array of writers or the different lyrical subjects presented. While the songs sort of dip into each other it's not full of the sound effects present on Vol. 1 so it might come off as a bit less 'thought out' but with the band themselves calling it a prequel it kind of lets them off the hook in a way. I wonder how they had this all worked out when they completed the last album. How did they make the songs on this new album to all predate those they finished first? No matter, but it seems a master stroke even if they lucked out! Sonically this album seems a bit retro primarily in its use of warm analog synths throughout. Beyond that it just feels like more good music about head scratching issues on the horizon. While this broad concept of futurism has been good for the band and has definitely got them good press, somehow I look forward even more to see where they go next and that's a good thing.

Never a band to do the obvious, 3rdegree followed up "Ones & Zeroes - Volume 1" a futuristic tale of the digitization of a human mind that ends badly with "Ones & Zeroes - Volume 0", a futuristic tale of a man who purchases a human companion that ends badly.

Despite my tongue in cheek description of these album, I happen to love them both. 3rdegree have continued to produced albums of clever art rock, or crossover prog as we call it here at PA, fronted by exceptional vocals using lush harmonies and some deep intelligent lyrics.

The album as a whole brings me back to the days of 10cc and Supertramp, two other bands that excelled at playing catchy, compelling and thought provoking music for the discerning listener.

I find that this album draws me in even more than the previous album, and has become a staple in my car stereo this hot summer.

I'm especially hooked on the three middle tracks, "The Future Doesn't Need You", "Unintended Consequence" and "Perfect Babies". And of course the 15 minute epic "Click Away!" is a joy.

I'm not sure yet is this album has replaced "Human Interest Story" as my favorite 3rdegree album, but it's close.

At the end of my review of 3rDegree's Ones and Zeroes: Volume 1, I wrote: "It's a mess of awfully good music wrapped around an interesting idea. And the best thing? It's only the first part!"

Now that I've gotten familiar with the band's follow up, I'm not so sure about that anymore.

The "first part" bit, I mean. The enthusiasm was completely warranted. But where does Volume 0 fit in to the chronology? It came second, after all, but it's hardly a sequel. So it is a prequel? Not really. Is it better to listen to them in order of release or numerical order? I'm going to go out on a limb and say it doesn't really matter, for a very unexpected reason ? Volume 0 doesn't really have anything to do with Volume 1. Conceptually, at least.

Hear me out.

Volume 1 tells, essentially, a single story about the impact of a fictional (gods, I hope) megacorp, Valhalla Biotech, that peddles various "life extension" technology. There was a through line running from stem to stern of the album, summed up by refrain "tell me what it means to be human." This was helped along by the sometimes chilling asides from various Valhalla products and spokespersons.

Volume 0, by contrasts, covers a lot of different ground. "Olympia" deals with artificial beings who aren't content to be submissive. "Perfect Babies" channels Brave New World and Gattaca and their (timely and relevant) fears of designer offspring. The epic "Click Away!" dives into the echo chamber of the Internet. Unlike Volume 1, there's no connective tissue pulling these all together (the Valhalla announcements are absent, for example).

To put it another way, Volume 1 is a Black Mirror episode; Volume 0 is an entire season.

This isn't a bad thing. Indeed, it's probably a good idea not to just do a copy of Volume 1, since it's hard to bottle lightning twice. Still, aside from the opening overture and a few riffs in the closing "Ones and Zeroes" there isn't really a link between to the two albums. They're separate things that stand on their own merits.

And Volume 0 has plenty of merits. Lyrically, the best tracks ("Olympia" and "Logical Conclusion," in particular) create perfect little worlds, short stories of immediate impact and thougtfulness. The rest throw out interesting ideas and slip in some zingers for good measure (has a meaner chorus ever been sung other than "the future doesn't need you at all?").

Musically, 3rDegree continue to refine a sound that doesn't really resemble anybody else. Bassist Robert James Pashman once told me that 3rDegree was (I'm seriously paraphrasing) "too straight forward for the prog crowd, but too weird for the mainstream." That's still true, although they've been embraced by the prog world in the past few years (and produced an epic in return!). But they're at their best when the hooks and melodies come to the fore, to be supported by some interesting backing stuff and arrangements. That's all backed up by playing that's intricate and muscular, but rarely flashy. It takes a few listens to really get at what's going on, which is always a good sign. I particularly dig that there's lots of bass synth on this album.

One of the reasons I had to keep giving Volume 0 listens is because I had a hard time thinking about what to say about it. Here's the thing ? with each album since they got back together, 3rDegree have been stepping up their game in big ways. Volume 0, though, doesn't feel like a big step forward. It feels like a consolidation, a restatement of what they're about. That's not in any way a bad thing.

What I'm saying is that Volume 0 is a great album. It's musically and lyrically rich, filled with catchy tunes and great playing. But that's what we've come to expect from 3rDegree at this point, right? They're a band in top form and cranking out another excellent offering just isn't a surprise at this point. So why don't you have your copy yet?