Pit er Pat, Pyramids

Pyramids is Pit er Pat’s second full length album. It was recorded essentially live by John McEntire, whom you may know from such hits as Tortoise and The Sea and Cake. If you like the post rock sounds of either of those groups, you might like Pit er Pat.

Pit er Pat was originally formed as a backing band for a singer who suddenly left town. That left the rest of the band to decide what to do about a show that they had committed to play. Instead of calling it quits and scrapping the whole project, they quickly composed and rehearsed new material. Then, apparently enjoying the process, they decided to stay together and repeat it.

The aforementioned process seems to consist of composing and recording songs in a hurry. In fact, in the case of Pyramids, much of the material was actually improvised in the studio. And you can tell. Improvised music doesn’t lend itself to changes or complicated melodies, so the songs on Pyramids tend to be of the long-groove variety. The vocal melodies often follow the keyboard melodies and are similarly understated. You don’t get key changes or any other fanciness. Sometimes you just don’t need fanciness.

All in all, Pyramids makes for a good background album. I don’t expect to be humming any of the melodies, though — in fact, after several listens, I can’t think of a single one right now. This may be a good thing, since the last time I listened to it was on a road trip. For that purpose, it seems perfect.