by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Some projects need a long, extended roll-out, others do not. For the long gestating Pyramid Scheme, the trio have been known to keep very busy and their album needs little advance warning, it’s here and it’s ready to tangle. The Chicago math rock band comprised of drummer Seth Engel (Options, Great Deceivers, Coaster), bassist Al Costis (Monobody), and guitarist Rajiv Raju (who spends his time as a resident physician when not shredding) are set to release Everything But Rap and Country, their latest album due out this coming Friday, April 5th, recorded by Engel and mixed/mastered by Nate Amos (This Is Lorelei, Water From Your Eyes). Following a split with Monobody in 2017, the band are out on their own and making knotted and technical math rock that’s tight and well focused, each song unravelling in its own concise bursts.

Opening with the thrashing “Conman in Guru’s Clothing,” the band start on an aggressive note, thrush with heavy Raju’s heavily overdriven projection and the skittering rhythm of Engel and Costis wrapping itself into uncoiling circles. The band slide downhill like an avalanche, pulling in debris and loose ground as they go, every note crammed perfectly into his place. Much like Monobody, there’s hints of jazz-fusion in every corner on songs like “Stop Marshing My Mellow” and “The Well Tempered Caviar” (and yes, all the song titles have a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor), dazzling in free form structures and an easy going explosive energy that twists and turns with every progression and every undefinable rhythmic pattern.