Ben van der Poorten and Jeeshan Patwari provide the song-writing backbone to London outfit IDIOVERSE, a group dedicated to the ethic of "music as art" and seemingly unbound by any notions of genre or side-tracked by the fruitless pursuit of fashionable kudos.
'The Mammoth' is their 3rd EP and its four tracks teasingly defy categorisation. But rather than rely on its difference as the sole raison d'etre for its existence the EP revels with some gloriously idiosyncratic melodies and changes in direction and mood, often within the same song. There is a strong prog presence and some of the literate edginess of, say, Peter Hamill (particularly the title track) but their music also encompasses the outer reaches of rock, punk and grunge. At times the guitar work reminds me of Swervedriver and at other times of Bauhaus.
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The EP's stand-out track is 'Leonard Eats The Needle' a tour-de-force of art-rock that seems to encapsulate the experimental spirit and melodic drive of this promising band. The dual guitar-work during the song's central instrumental segment is astonishingly beautiful and mesmerising, reminiscent of Radiohead at their creative best.
Bravely resisting pigeon-holing and equally inspirational in their creative urges, IDIOVERSE offer a unique sensory experience that exercises hearts and minds rendered unfit by the couch-potato world of lazy genre hopping and by the paunchy play-lists of endless verse/chorus/verse.
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