aaamusic | On 13, Nov 2011

trioVD are f**king weird. These crazy muthas are so hard to listen to, let alone categorise, that I can’t stop myself from listening to them. This new EP from the Leeds-based trio – simply entitled ‘X’ – is a four part concept EP about…the X Factor (!). Yep, each song represents a member of the X Factor judging panel and (I guess?) their trademark characteristics.

So, opener ‘Tulisa’ is a mathcore instrumental, save for a handful of incoherent yelps, with metallic guitars and frantic sax segments – think Dillinger Escape Plan minus the vocals. It is the sound of a crazy person who manages to finely control her aggression. ‘Walsh’ is calmer, with a predictable drumbeat and a jazz-bar sax line, before the brass instrument jumps up and rapidly spurts out nonsense. ‘Barlow’ sees trioVD return to the math-metal, with unnecessarily abusive comments (*cough), I mean riffs, being bookended by boring inaction – the loopy end of the song, however, displays the same spurty nonsense as ‘Walsh.’ ‘Kelly’ is the most restrained track of the EP, with colourful layers of jazz warming a trip hop backbone.

As an instrumental mashup of math-rock/metal and experimental jazz, ‘X’ is an astounding success – with the songs retaining just enough structure to make them possibly memorable, and with enough innovation to single trioVD out as actually containing some real originality. But whether or not they have correctly portrayed the X Factor judging panel is debatable – I mean, to me, the noise that comes out of Kelly Rowland sounds less like soothing trip hop, and more like a cow eating a functioning tractor engine.

 

Clive Rizario