But that's really just the beginning, and by the time you get to the halfway point of this album, Pyramids has lured you in with its horror and intrigue. "This House is Like Any Other World" and "Ghost" rely heavily on double bass drumming and the swirling eddies of reverb, but don't move the listener beyond much more than noise. The vocals are barely there, yet they suggest folksy ballads if you listen (very) closely. Other songs, like "Hillary," are so clouded by noise it's difficult to make any sense of it at all, but then again, "Hillary" might hold some type of obscure political message since the album was released in the midst of a messy - and often confusing - Democratic Presidential primary.
Still, there are some moments of sanity on this album, like "Monks," which seems fitting for a horror movie soundtrack more than a full-blown hallucinatory trip, even if it's full of haunting noise. Although the album builds up into something epic on "Sleds," it ends with the grinding noise of "1, 2, 3," a song that, if you make it that far, will have you seeing new colors.
Although Pyramids may not make much sense at first listen, it certainly fits into the changing fields of experimentation seen in the indie community today. Pyramids aren't afraid to try new things and expand perceptions of what sound can do, and their self-titled debut certainly suggests they plan on doing this for a while now.
The mp3 version of the album, available on Amazon, also has a bonus disc that includes several re-mixes by fellow artists and friends, giving the Pyramids sound even more depth. The band's label, Hydra Head, also offers a free streaming audio version of the album on their Web site.
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