POLY-MATH – Zenith
Release Date: 18th November 2022
Label: Nice Weather For Airstrikes
Bandcamp
Genre: Instrumental, Prog-Rock, Post-Rock, Math Rock.
FFO: The Mars Volta, King Crimson, Tera Melos, Battles, Physics House Band.
Review By: John Newlands
POLY-MATH are an instrumental progressive, post-rock, math-rock band from Brighton / London, who focus on complex instrumentation, polyrhythms and catchy riffs. Their previous albums are comprised of long length, expansive soundscapes using field recordings. For this latest release, Zenith, the band has moved to a new style, with all songs sitting around four minutes in length opposed to ten. The new record is also the first to feature a fifth member playing saxophone.
Having never heard of the band before, I checked out the previous albums, and I for one, prefer the new direction the POLY-MATH have taken, with tighter, punchier and shorter track lengths. The addition of the saxophone is genius, it’s like they have found the missing part of a puzzle (that you never knew was missing) and makes the band sound complete and stand out amongst the crowded post-everything scene. Production on Zenith is top-notch, with all instrumentation sitting perfectly in the mix with clarity and space between instruments that allows the listener to hear everything that’s going on in this sometimes chaotic progressive brain melting album.
Zenith is a strong opener with a killer bass sound and a riff that pulls us right into POLY-MATH’s beguiling prog/math world. The first motif from the saxophone provides a middle eastern feel to the track, while the guitar provides some fantastic textural flourishes, allowing the other instruments to shine. Towards the midsection, the song moves into a jam that has a somewhat improvised feel, yet never treads too far away from the main riff as to alienate the listener.
Track 2, Velociter, picks up the pace and provides yet another tight riff and at points had this listener thinking of Battles 2007 album Mirrored, but with more of a prog and jazz feel from the sax. This track explores a lot within its 4:30 runtime and features some awesome guitar work with a solo towards the end that is very reminiscent of work from Omar Rodríguez-López from The Mars Volta.
The next track, Charger, lowers the tempo allowing the listener to recover from the first two tracks and provides an alluring, complex and atmospheric groove that really let the saxophone shine.
Canticum II, picks up the pace again with its chaotic opening and here I believe a Hammond organ provides a new flavour we haven’t had before on Zenith. Canticum II, is definitely a more progressive, jazzy offering and the band explore different sounds within its 6 minutes. The arpeggiating synth sounds and hand claps all add depth and weight to this head spinning number. POLY-MATH, never lean too heavy into the chaos that could be off-putting to a casual listener.
The next track, Canticum I, starts off slower, again providing us with some space before picking up the pace and finishing strong with more fantastic riffs. From the titles, I guess there is a connection to the previous track somehow, but I must admit I couldn’t find the link myself.
Track 6, Proavus, starts off with a moody, atmospheric riff jointly played by bass and sax. The track opens up throughout its run length, building on the riff, increasing the tempo and adding new motifs before reaching a fantastic climax with the full band going full out on a fantastic explosive jam.
Track 7 Mora, is the shortest and is a somewhat forgettable track on the album. It is notably a more mellow offering compared to the first 6 tracks and gets somewhat lost in the mix. POLY-MATH close the album out with Metam. The track opens with an arpeggiating synth bleep and gradually layers drums, bass, piano, sax and guitar, all of which lean heavily into a plodding, menacing yet still groovy riff. Midway, the track resets and changes direction and tempo (a repeated theme through many tracks on the album), before the sax and guitar meander off into solo territory and then return to the main riff.
Unfortunately, this closer didn’t quite hit the mark, and for this listener, Proavus would have been a better choice to close on. Tracks 7 and 8, may have been better placed elsewhere in the album, or even removed all together. This might have allowed for exploration of motifs and longer length in earlier tracks, which were sometimes cut a little short. But this is POLY-MATH’s creation, they had a plan and a framework to make these short punchy songs, and they have achieved that with great success and with fantastic musicianship.
One could also worry about the addition or overuse of saxophone (a very popular instrument at present within rock & metal), but there isn’t anything to be concerned about here, POLY-MATH know when enough is enough and never go fully down the prog rabbit hole and lose your attention. The runtime of Zenith (36 minutes) is the perfect for this genre and warrants repeated listens.
All in all, well done POLY-MATH, you have a new fan that is excited to see where the band goes in the future. 
(4 / 5)
