Centric Jones “The Antikythera Method”

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Centric Jones “The Antikythera Method”

Posted 31 Mar 2012 in Albums of 2012, Albums of the 10s, John Driscoll, Prog-Rock

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#667 in the Series) is Centric Jones, The Antikythera Method

Centric Jones is a duo of experimental musicians Chris Fournier and Tobe London, and this is their second release. The temptation to label certain music is hard to resist, but this music truly does challenge the mind when it comes to figuring out who it is you may have heard of that they sound like.

I guess you could say Tangerine Dream or any of the synthesizer instrumental bands from a time long ago, but it’s less than a fair comparison. You will likely not hear this band talked about on “That Metal Show”, even if they are generally lumped in with progressive rock.

What makes this music so different, and at the same time fun to listen to, is the talent of these guys. The drums, guitars and keyboards all combine to make the listener pay attention to the next change that’s impossible to anticipate but likely to come. Most songs are instrumentals and the few that do feature vocals are of a female voice in more of an orchestral off-the-microphone choir sound. It is a very cool record with many sounds mixing and matching (or not), and the result is indeed something of a sonic adventure.

The songs aren’t very long either which is something many prog rock bands suffer from, and even if you think these songs were not written but improvised mid-jam session, the liner notes indicate otherwise. There are 10 songs, to me none sound the same because of all the twists and turns and layers they all take on. The drumming sounds like a machine, but even a machine could never hit as hard and fast as these cats. The guitar sounds are the same as that of a virtuoso, and the keyboards, moogs and synthesizers take on some never before heard music. The liner notes were a bit hard to read, so as a sweet surprise, the second to last song is a faithful and updated version of the early Yes song “Then”, ripe for remake but clearly here in the right hands. Even the album cover art is cool, reminiscent of Roger Dean but updated as well. Even if you don’t like all of the songs here, you cannot deny the creativity.