Pyramids is a cute band. In short, the four-piece Texan band composes experimental music in the vein of Jesu meets every other amateur ambient artist you've ever heard. This is cute because, as if the Jesu comparison wasn't obvious enough, they're actually on the same label. Kudos to Hydra Head for diversifying its lineup. Additionally, anytime I see "ambient" and "Texas" in the same sentence together, all I can think about is how I'd rather be listening to Stars of the Lid (this is mostly independent of who I may be listening to at the time, but Pyramids doesn't exactly make me think twice about it). I'm still baffled by how many Texan bands (This Will Destroy You) think they can throw some half-assed ambience into a track and believe this qualifies as a "deep" statement. Unbeknownst to many, it seems, there's a lot of of planning that actually goes behind this kind of music -- who would have thunk? There's more cuteness abound, rest assured, but my stomach's already getting queasy.
If it hasn't already become blatantly obvious, the album reeks of naiveté. Pyramids is the musical equivalent of crappy children's art. Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. It's a piece that is ultimately experimental for experimental's sake, and runs of risk of alienating the audience because those who don't like it, "just don't get it." Tracks fly by like some sort of space odyssey from hell; here the highpoint is the anal probing, afterwards it actually does get worse...
And that's just it -- most of the tracks are a complete mess. Directionless, remarkably bloated, unorganized, and just plain sloppy. It all strikes me as something an aspiring musician would think sounded "cool" when they put as many tracks into Garage Band as possible before the program crashes. And so, it's a cute album, but you can't help but feel for Pyramids because there is a very real sense that they don't know any better and you really just want to stop the disc, pull them aside, and let them in on the joke. Sure, it's cute, but the joke's still on them.
-Lee Whitefield