Body Politic, The: Egressor EP

One of my favorite horror movie soundtracks is the score for Candyman; written by Philip Glass, the score includes a piece entitled "Music Box" that captures not only a feeling of suspense but also a little bit of the uncanny. It's a perfect little piece that sets things up nicely.

I mention Glass only because the opening track on this release "Vitam Agere" has a similar quality. No, they aren't exactly the same, but the simple piano melody presented here reminds me of Glass's composition. To me, "Vitam Agere" is the best track on this short release, mainly because it does a good job of setting up a sense of menace, even a little bit of the uncanny as well. The rest of the EP is never quite as engaging as this first track. I did, however, like some of the material on "All Hands" and "Swing for the Fences."

This release on the whole is a bit of a letdown. Before discussing that, however, I'd like to offer a few positive comments. This band is obviously made up of very talented musicians. I especially thought that Matt Aasen and Dan Montgomery delivered some killer guitar parts. I also loved Rob Wilkinson's keyboard playing. From beginning to end, he brought out additional layers of sound that gave this EP an extra edge. To me, his playing was the very best thing about this EP. I was less impressed, though, with the overall style of the band, particularly the alternating clean and dirty vocals (performed by Sam Britton and Jesse Janzen). Sure, their respective voices sound good, but this style has never had much appeal to me. I find the clean vocal passages overly emotive. Fans of this style should enjoy this EP, but I don't think that skeptics (like me) will find much here to convince them otherwise.

Track Listing:
1. Vitam Agere
2. Armature
3. All Hands
4. Swing for the Fences
5. Colqhoun
6. Irradiate

Added: August 16th 2014
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: band website
Hits: 1913
Language: english

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