We recently discussed a band that takes math rock to the extremes in terms of technical skills, to the detriment of the ‘math’ aspect, but here’s a band that does the opposite. Marateck don’t play thirty-second notes and they don’t quickly arpeggiate extended chords, but they ingeniously integrate polyrhythmics and polymetrics into often odd-time signature compositions. This is more evidently displayed on their debut album, Time Is Over, which was released on July eleventh. Of course, playing such counter-intuitive timings and measure subdivisions is a technical feat in itself, but it unfortunately garners much less attention than playing sixteenth notes in rapid succession over a perfectly square 4/4 bar. It is, at least to me however, much more interesting to hear. To sit and contemplate the acoustic waves, trying to decipher their nature and eventually comprehend what the hell is happening. The New Yorker instrumental quartet delivers here some of the finest experimental math rock jams, and I’d put them in the same basket as Yowie and Doom Salad, for that matter. At just over forty-five minutes, Time Is Over is an essential album for any fan of odd rock music.

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