Poor Genetic Material: Possibilities

I’ve had a little bit of a rocky ride with Poor Genetic Material over the years, finding some of their albums to be nothing short of magnificent - 2011’s Island Noises for example. Others, like 2016’s Absence, are good but a little forgettable and unfortunately, on occasion, somewhat under par, such as their 2023 outing Elsewhere. Now, admittedly, that most recent encounter found the seven-piece band stripping back to a core trio of Phil Griffiths (vocals), Stefan Glomb (electric, acoustic guitars, bass) and Philipp Jaehne (piano, organ, synthesizers, mellotron, programming) and now describing the aforementioned Elsewhere as ‘just a second outlet to the band’s many musical ideas’.

Possibilities finds the septet back in place, Pia Darmstaedter (flute), Dennis Sturm (bass), Dominik Steinbacher (drums, backing vocals)
and Martin Griffiths (lead vocals on “Old Buffon� and nursery rhyme on “Rain�) joining the key threesome. Unfortunately, to my ears, it also leads to an even less steady outing than the one that came before. There’s one key word here - focus - and for my money it’s something a little lacking. Admittedly, as I often say, you always bring your own expectations into an album, and with PGM re-expanded, I had hoped for a return to the deep, involved, intricate progressive rock of their earlier output. However, Possibilities finds Poor Genetic Material sounding, by their standards, joyous, upbeat and dare I say frivolous. Layers of vocals smooth out many a chorus, rendering Phil Griffiths vocals much more ‘stage-show’ than I ever remember him being before. In places across “An Island In Time� I could easily imagine Dennis DeYoung of Styx fame handling these jaunty melody lines and while I love DDY, musically things don’t have enough theatricality to meld with the singing. It’s almost as though two worlds collided and didn’t quite know what to make of each other.

As is a tradition for PGM, Phil’s father Martin also takes on vocals on one track, “Old Buffoon� falling into the category of misguided. The press release suggests that in the right circumstances it could have been a hit, but I’d say that for such a twee departure, that’s optimistic in the extreme. And it’s a shame, “Contingency� a much more interesting, spiralling experience with some intricate percussion work and more overall depth, while “Rain� tries hard to introduce that more august side that PGM do so well, but with confused production muddying the end results, it comes across as neither one thing nor the other.

Oddly, if there was one single problem that I’d lay the blame of my disconnect at, it’s that Possibilities sounds just a little too cheerful for its own good. Now, who am I to tell anyone to stop being happy? However, with bright lush background vocals often breaking up passages that look to be more serious in intention, it’s undoubtedly a circle I simply have been unable to square.

Track Listing
1. Possibilities

2. Rain

3. A Spark of Ideas

4. Old Buffoon

5. An Island in Time

6. Contingency

Added: October 15th 2024
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Poor Genetic Material @ bandcamp
Hits: 143
Language: english

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