TROYKA – Life Was Transient
aaamusic | On 24, Feb 2015
Experimental three piece, Troyka, have previously released cuts off of their upcoming album Ornithophobia. These tasters show the group taking a rather hard left from the sound of their last studio album, ditching the atmospheric sound for something a whole lot looser and more unpredictable, with leading track ‘Life Was Transient’ showcasing a development of their rhythmic tendencies to envelop ever more complex time-signatures.
‘Life Was Transient’s intro sounds like Troyka actually decided to just skip the intro. The track opens on one of its definitively trippy, almost absurdist beats, dressed in alluring guitar work coupled with the type of flying synth that could accompany an urban melodrama in the 90s. For certain, there’s a surreal feeling of nostalgia here, but for when and where I’m not too sure.
Early on, the track changes up and everything disappears, leaving naught but a loose ascending and descending synth bass line. This introduces another section that in turn leads to the primary rhythmic motif (if it can be said there is one) of ‘Life Was Transient’. Midway through the track, a daftly comical melody comes in and starts just running around the room waving its pinky finger in everyones’ faces. It sounds like the musical equivalent of a friend (the one who’s amazing at anything released by Nintendo) obnoxiously crushing everyone in Mario party.
The drumming becomes engagingly complex throughout the run of this track and near the end they get to spend some time as the focal instrument in the mix. In these moments we get some truly tight beats and tricky playing to end things on a high note. This interesting choice of a single makes me anticipate the release of Ornithophobia to see what else they squeeze out of this new-found direction.
