31knots — It was high time to escape

Math-rock didn’t sound this good in five years. 31knots are revivifying a genre that was on the verge of collapsing into “dead and almost buried territory”. But voilà, the thing is still alive, and at last we’ve got something that ain’t just another rehash.

31knots is a power-trio from Portland, Oregon. All of them are exceptional musicians and they have to be in order to play good math-rock. But good musicians are aplenty. So they’ve got something else: good songwriting abilities. Oh yes. Plenty of it. And it’s not the only difference with the other bands…

31knots are not only math-rock. You can distinctly hear that they grew up in a post-punk world. It’s also obvious that they found somewhere on the way, a good few copies of Yes albums. And then there is an undeniable pop sensibility.

Time-signature changes are everywhere to be found on It was high time to escape. But it’s not a matter of abrupt changes for the sake of abrupt changes. The quality musicianship and the typical math-rock structures are always put in second and third place to favour the songs. And they are not afraid to drop completely the math-rock canon to write a great pop “ballad” such as Without wine or a great unconventional rock song such as That which has no name.

31Knots manages to transcend influences and roots and create contemporary straightforward rock of the best quality. It’s not avant or anything, it’s just good.