If you look at the current and former bands of the member of 3ofmillions – Triosk, Pivot, Pure Evil Trio, The Splinter Orchestra – there’s a certain incongruity that can play havoc with your preconceptions. A quick glance at this EP’s instrumentation – piano, Rhodes, piano book, acoustic bass, drums – doesn’t give much away either, barring perhaps the slightest hint of something loosely jazz-oriented – which, apart from amorphous signifiers like ‘avant garde’, is the only real common thread to be found in this trio’s pedigree.

But Golden Calf isn’t a jazz record, although those styles are an influence. It’s not a glitchtronica record either, although Adrian Klumpes does populate the music’s underbelly with spritely, micro-processed sounds. And it’s definitely not grindcore. The title track on this 3” CD-R is a near fifteen-minute sounding out of each member’s obsessions – Klumpes lays a foundation of tinkling piano and the aforementioned microsounds, into which Abel Cross drops a succession of desolate, hollow bass notes that ring out for what seems like an eternity. It isn’t until the second third that Finn Ryan appears on the scene, skilfully layering a skittering beat over the top of his compatriots intricate web of sound. Second track ‘Number 13’, which mulches crunchy static with gamelan-like percussion, takes the disc in a somewhat darker, more abstract direction. Definitely more than the proverbial sum of its parts, Golden Calf is hopefully just the first of many such explorations from this trio.

by Adam D Mills