TIME COLUMNS

Salvo starts us upon the journey. Off the shores, seagulls yappin about the weather and fish, bells harmonize the breeze. A very post rock, ambient introduction takes through a melodic guitar line. Everything comes starts to come together then it becomes apparent that they must travel through time to heal Earth. Traveling in 7 and beyond giant rifts are created. A mix of synthetic and organic sounds are traversed. They manage to keep it all together despite the odd timing. It floats for a while but this all feels so familiar to me. I don't feel as if I'm brought into new territory. My favorite part of this song is the ending where the bending distortion slowly trancends into a solo guitar line that almost sounds like its recorded in the bathroom on a cheap, old tape recoder, recorded on old tape so there's a slight natural tape delay minor distortion to it.

Lights at Rendlesham has a rawer sound to it. The drums are on point and don't float as much. The music is very chill and would be great to listen to on a road trip but again I'm not hearing anything breaking out in particular. The math edge definitely shows through but the heavy production and editing keep it in the post rock realm. At about 8:00 it gets interesting and goes heavy production. Very trippy. I can't decipher most of the speaking but I hear someone say Wake Up. Guitar starts to come back through. Synth following closely behind. Water sounds prevailing.

Tetralemma has a rawer sound to it at first. This one travels up the 4/4 time column. Has a danceable edge to it. Around 3:40ish they get into a sick little groove.

Lole's song starts off folky and goes almost tribal with a Australian overtone.

Produce Communicate Transport Destroy does all but destroy it. Some asian sounding guitar thrown in the mix. They play around with 5/4. Drums are sick on this track. Much control. Good track.

Luma starts off delayed. This track is very Pink Floyd inspired. If not almost a direct tribute. There are vocals on this track. They surprisingly fit.

Halcyon Days is very chill. Voyaging on guitar riffage and effects building in the background. Towards the middle it starts to groove in the fashion of the Alan Parsons Project. Ends with some Campfire by the river groovin on the acoustic.

A decent album with much room to improve. Overall the album is enjoyable and would be great to play on a road trip, acid trip, or any other type of trip taken, This music seems almost impossible to replicate live but would be great music to hear at a concert. Good mix of Math Rock rhythm and post rock ambience. 70s prog influenced. Nothing really sounds exciting or refreshing but it is a solid effort.

Some people get sometimes confused by the terms of post-rock and math-rock, and though in my not-so-good English it is difficult to me to explain the differences, I believe when we listen to bands such as Time Columns, the difference is actually evident. This young band (a duo, actually) has only a few years in the scene, but they are aiming for biggest goals. Their first EP entitled "Sunriseinthesea" is available for free download, so if you want to know a little deeper the math-rock realm, this is your chance.

With five songs and almost half an hour of music, this EP starts with "Spring", a good opener track that introduces us to their sound. The music is instrumental with never-ending strings and math notes; there are some claps as background while the guitars sound, and the drums never cease, as well. "Summer", in the other hand, is the longest composition. Since the second song one can realize that this genre might be repetitive, no matter the diversity of elements, the sound is really, really alike from one song to other.

"Hundred Flowers" is the one in the middle of the four stations. And here the sound is a bit different (at least in the first minute), more oriented to post-rock, with great guitars and nice drums. Later the math thing returns and the unstoppable guitars attack again with its sticky rhythm. There is like an interlude at minute two, and later it restarts and re-builds the structure, creating a diverse, and in my opinion, more interesting track.

With "Fall" the (let's say) original sound reappears: math and non-stop guitars complemented by drums; first it creates a kind and soft sound, but later another guitar appears with a heavier tone, closer to metal, but it only lasts some seconds because later it returns to its calmer sound, and continues like that at least for two or three minutes more. The last part is more emotional, but it does not explode as I thought it would.

The final track is "Winter" and since the first seconds is shows a more intense sound, and though its sound does not have drastic changes, there are some moments where it slows down a little bit, in order to open the gates to the heavier notes. After all, the math rock label is truly suitable for this band.

I liked but not loved this EP, honestly this genre is sometimes monotone and even boring, so if you are not a fan of it, you will probably suffer the same way I did; but if you do like the genre, then this is for you. My final grade, 2 stars, better for fans of the genre.

Enjoy it!

This music, in contrast to that of bands like Don Caballero, which I tend to percieve as almost toneless, is quite toneful (melodic isn't quite the word, per se). It can become droney at times, when one sort of tonality is repeated for quite some time, but they're all very pleasing tones, almost psychedelic sounding. That, coupled with the lack of vocals (not that that's a criticism!), makes this a good album to have on repeat in the background while you need to shut out some noise or need to concentrate on work.

Oh, and It's free on bandcamp, so just go get it already!