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Bubblemath — Turf Ascension
(Cuneiform Rune 488, 2022, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2022-08-30

Turf Ascension Cover art

After a mere five years, Bubblemath returns with another album of complex progressive rock that walks a tightrope between musical difficulty and melodic accessibility. Turf Ascension consists of four longish tracks (10 to 18 minutes), and each of them consists of a constant stream of sections with different rhythmic and melodic material. Stylistically, the music brings together elements of mid-period Gentle Giant (Free Hand or Interview), Echolyn or Underground Railroad, and a bit of King Crimson in the occasional angularity and dissonance. The music is also notable for what it doesn’t contain, namely solos for any of the instruments. There are no extended instrumental sections, especially not with anything that comes off as a “guitar solo” or “keyboard solo.” You’ll hear interludes between vocal sections where the guitar or a keyboard plays a melody or the two trade off composed lines, but there’s no stretching out or improvisation. The band cruises through the varying sections as if there were nothing unusual about changing meters or rhythmic patterns after only a dozen or two bars. There’s almost always a constant pulse that runs through the pieces, but beyond that almost anything goes. One consequence of their style is that there are lots of lyrics, and they tend to go by quickly. When you can catch them, it seems they’re full of wordplay and interesting phrases (rhyming “cranium” and “uranium” isn’t something that happens often in rock music). Luckily, Bubblemath isn’t (quite) full-speed-ahead all the time — there are occasional sections where the intensity level settles down and the audience gets a breather — but it would be fair to characterize them as “maximalist prog.” The constant flow of new ideas is almost exhausting, and may be too much for some listeners, but the originality and inventiveness is quite impressive, and I am among the (hopefully) many who will enjoy Turf Ascension.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): Bubblemath

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/turf-ascension

 

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