5 By Four

Very smart clean vinyl looks unplayed with a great cover.

Punningly referencing the number of songs on this EP and the number of people in the band at the time, 5 mostly steers away from the dark beauty of Beard of Bees and into slightly different paths. Not sounding like a unified release despite its provenance of a single recording, 5 seems like a chance for the different members to try out varying song styles to see what happens. Opening track "Mr. Tic Toc" consists of a spoken word piece about a worker at a factory, while the musical backing suddenly shifts halfway through from soft piano and guitar to shrill mechanistic drones. Chris Matthews' contribution, "Flipper Go Home," frazzles out lyrically and musically, repetitive drumming underlying his strangled lyrics before ending with found-sound vocals and a muffled piano. Meanwhile, "North Head" is a strangely aggressive, instrumental art piece that could almost be a weird after-echo of some of Einstürzende Neubaten's early stormers -- all clattering, massively echoed drums and scraped guitars. "What Can I Say?" and the more energetic "Out of My Hands" sound the most like Beard of Bees tracks, but with their own queasy spin on things nonetheless. On balance, this is a surprising but worthy release.