It’s sometimes said that a good musician keeps their origins close to them and they can always be heard in the music they create, no matter how far they sound like they’ve strayed. Piano Interrupted are a good example of this idea in action. The brainchild of Tom Hodge, with electronic producer Franz Kirmann getting in on the action too, Piano Interrupted create music that’s busy and fidgety, rarely leaving a moment to just settle. And when you find out Tom Hodge comes from a world of creating music for advertisements (among other things such as film, television and theatre), the music just begins to make that bit more sense.
Pick a moment at random across EP2 and you’ll easily be able to imagine an advert for some fancy car where the parts of which all comes from space, or some new-fangled slim phone that only responds to a special key which you can use on a Tuesday. That sounds a bit absurd but I only create these imaginary adverts so they might match the music more easily. Not to call the music absurd but it’s hard to imagine the music being used for something natural; the music recalls the genre it fits into best: electronica. Effects fizzle and stutter, like frayed wires sparking about as piano melodies come and go in small movements that both feel deliberate and spontaneous.
That said some of the best moments here are those that seem to keep a core idea in mind. Opening track “Son of Pi” emerges from effects that sounds like they are coming from underwater, bringing in a slightly clunky piano melody over some wailing horns, clicking drums and bass. The main riff is played with, and even slightly skewed at times, but never is the focus gone but rather the tension built up and expelled carefully. “VI,” with its pretty piano and trickling melodies, could be an off cut from Finally We Are No One-era múm had it not had the trip-hop beat put over it, but it still manages to be an interesting and textural cut, if not likely to be deemed as a piece of instrumental filler in another context.
The rest of the EP’s highlights come from various moments scattered across the remaining four tracks, such as the moment when all the music drops away leaving just a marimba and a steady beat as piano chords build themselves back up on “IV (Live Trio).” Kinetic moments like this make this engaging material but even though the seemingly random nature of the music might be expected to bring a plentiful amount of these moments, there are times when the landscape can feel bare. But the EP also impresses on the sound itself, namely those that boast they are a “Live Trio.” The press release for the EP makes no secret of there being other instrumentalists playing here (in fact it tells of how the band can be heard playing live as a quartet), but it can be quite impressive how much sound can be gotten from three band members, making you wonder what is live and what has made its way into the recording via a laptop. The live tracks also put a new spin on the studio versions, namely “VI” which is spruced up with more sound and becomes less of instrumental and more of regular Piano Interrupted track (whatever that might be exactly).
Those who heard the first EP from Tom Hodge’s band won’t be too aghast at the material here. In fact they’ll likely pick up their ears when they hear a few of the melodies recurring and being recycled. Thus it’s not a huge step forward for the project. “Son Of Pi” is advertised a “glimpse of what can be expected on their next record” while the live cuts feel like they are there just to get listeners interested into coming to the live shows. If anything then EP2 is more an advertisement for the band that an actual statement or fully considered EP, which, at the very least, keeps the origins close to heart.
