Review: GroupThought - [EP]

Many, many years ago when I was a lad in high school I was in a band called Modern Theory. It was a sort of Prog-Rock and while it was good fun, eventually we parted ways cause I wasn't really all that into Prog nor was I proficient enough at bass to really hold my own in a Prog band (to this day I'm not a huge fan of playing with out a pick). We should be clear, it's my memory that it was a mutual parting of ways, but it's also entirely possible that I was well and truly sacked.

Either way, the drummer for that band was a kid named Ben Smith who was more than slightly decent at what he did. He would end up going to school in Potsdam and starting a band called GroupThought. See why that gratuitously long anecdote was necessary? So now I'm going to reveiw GroupThought's Ep, a good year and half after it was first brought to my attention. Ben if you're out there....sorry about that.

The five song ep is a little bit prog-y and a little jammy. There are some serious grooves on here that even got my head bouncing around and at the same time a lot of shredding goes on. The album's opener "Sleep Machine" is a nice little microcosm of this as it switches between more wandering jammed out parts with elaborate instrumental work and solid grooves that see the band lock in together nicely. The next two songs show off the band's diversity with "Silent Scene," essentially a piano ballad, and the tersely-titled "III" which is a sort of ambient interlude.

"I Wish I Were Green" is a return to the formula of the opener of bipolar instrumentation going back and forth between a delay-laden guitar part intro and a grooving Flanger-ed and distorted riff. I have to say though I would like this song a lot better if it had been left as an instrumental. That's all I'm going to say about that, you'll just have to listen to it and see what I mean. Finally the record closes with the strangely named "ESPhunky" (I would love to know what the hell that means), an effects heavy meandering tune which, like 'Green; shows that each of these guys has some serious talent which they put to good use. These songs are dynamic and well executed and if you like your jam music a little technical or you like your prog-rock to groove a little then this might just be your favorite new upstart band.

I'm going to post a song here, but it's worth noting that all the songs can be acquired for free at the band's myspace here.

GroupThought - Silent Machine

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GroupThought