With The Idyll Opus (I-VI) becoming one of my favourite albums of all time, I was more than curious to have a listen to the rest of their discography. Despite their decently long existence as a band so far, their releases seemed few and far between, so Prelude (.3333) seemed like the only option.
With a short tracklist of just four songs spanning twenty-five minutes, this EP serves as a spiritual, narrativistic AND chronological predecessor to The Idyll Opus (I-VI), which is quite a feat. Featuring similar soundscapes and stylistic choices of its successor, Prelude (.3333) is definitely a worthwhile part of their musical narrative universe.
Praepositio is an unexpected but energetic start to the experience. Coming in with nothing but hefty march-like drumming, one that drives the song for most of its runtime, this song presents itself as one of the most meta-lyrical on the EP. With sporadic and restless verses, running with the concepts of literature and fiction to wherever it can go. Even the echoing refrain staining the entire song, "Melopoeia, Mythopoeic", are terms describing the art of crafting melody and myth respectively. It is a lively, heavy percussion, drum-led experience, constantly jumping and swerving and even throwing an 11/8 rhythm on the verse. Despite it all, they sound like they're in full form (except for the banjo, where's the banjo?), and distinctly Adjy.
Another Flammarion Woodcut is the longest track on the EP by a good amount, sitting pretty at nine and a half minutes, and it is well spent. Another percussion-heavy track, this time co-led by a sparkly synth melody and slow keys, as well as a lot of other instruments and sounds that come and go. It's a noticeably calmer song, although it still has its strong moments, complete with anthemic guitars, gang vocals and powerful melodies. I love the simmering 5/4 middle section, and I love the grit in his voice nearing the end as the lyrics get confessional, it's cool to see them stray a bit from their comfort zone in technique.
Hyperthymesia has slowly but surely grown on me as I listened to the EP more and more, and as much as the typo on Spotify bugs me, the song itself is the exact opposite. Being the most cohesive, and admittedly most pop-leaning, song on the EP, its appeal to me is simply stellar musical workmanship. Between the wonderfully complementing layers and the heartfully poetic lyrics, laid upon a fast-paced yet elegant rhythm and melody, it becomes the most emotionally-infused and narratively strong track of the four, especially with its heavy referencing and tie-ins to the story and universe of The Idyll Opus (I-VI). I especially love the sounds going on, between the vocal oohs-and-aahs, sparkly xylophones and bells. The drumming is exquisitely dynamic and powerful, and the guitarwork building the beautiful background melodies accentuates the soundscape well, and it just feels ethereal.
Grammatology is the final track, and actually a song brought forward from their previous release, called Of Grammatology on that EP (one that I cannot play on Spotify, sadly). With the same sonic fingerprint of the rest of the EP, and some fun samples sprinkled in, this song is the most vibrant of the four. Coming in at a slow pace and a lullaby-like atmosphere, save for the tasteful drumming, it's easy to fall into a trance and into the soundscape. After delay-reverb guitars and beautiful arpeggios, there is an intermission-like sequence populated by various overlapping dialogues before a Speak & Spell comes in to spell out "reconstruct", followed by a strong climatic ending reaching the decibel peaks of their sound.
Coming from The Idyll Opus (I-VI), it was easy for me to mistake this as a less cohesive record given how the album was completely narratively intertwined, whereas Prelude (.3333) felt more like an anthology of four parts, but I've come to appreciate these four songs and the perspective they offer into the universe. It's also a brilliant endeavour from the band sonically and stylistically, although given that it is in retrospect, it'd make more sense to say that they were always capable of producing an expansive soundscape woven with a whole storyline worth of sentiment. Where The Idyll Opus (I-VI) is restrained to the flow of the narrative, Prelude (.3333) gets to hop and skip to and fro, and it definitely makes for an easier to love listening experience. Regardless, my love for Adjy's work only grows stronger.
Rating: 9/10