It kind of sounds like a radioactive isotope breaking down, each half life half itself again. So it spends some of it's time together, then it breaks down into chaos and then an element, or combination of elements pulls it back together again for a while, and then the cycle seems to be repeated. The whole concept of being in a band and then playing disparately seems interesting and sounds odd and to be so concise, when freeform would allow this kind of freedom anyway, seems even stranger. That it works would be simply a matter of opinion but it in the first track never seems to be anything concrete, and that's the essence it that it is always in a movement, even when one source settles into a means of expression, another is effectively undoing what is being done otherwise. What it does mean is that form is rarely achieved, and constancy is the fact that it is always changing. So, it resembles a group of people talking to certain others, leaving someone out, who in turn is talking to some of those original 'others', while leaving at least one out but still retaining the thread of the conversation. In effect there is not lead or foundation, but simply an admixture of musical threads, woven with a mathematical pattern, that can only end up looking random. It would be interesting to hear a choral piece with effectively the same pattern, and see how that would work out, but I think essentially, although it works in places there is always something missing and I think that is down to the numerics, as in only three can hear the fourth, though the fourth always seems to be missing. Hence the hole in the whole. However, hypothetically, the fourth should be able to anticipate himself in the response of the other three, presuming that the leader leads, but that relies on something ephemeral which, again hypothetically, should get better over time. Kind of relying on a collective consciousness and being able to tune into that, not necessarily the music itself, but an intuition of the music being played and going to be played, i.e. the longer it is done, the more together it becomes. As I listen this hypothesis seems to bear itself out. The percussion coming in only at a later time, almost proves this, because it cannot demarcate it's timing until the intial chaos has settled down into portions of musicality, even though they are still changing in size the percussion can make subtle adjustments to suit, because over time the rhythm in the music becomes more evident and smaller, which would be easier to cover with the odd back beat to bring the pace of percussion back into line with the music. The second track seems to increase my belief in the theoretical sustainibility. Assuming that these recordings are linearly recorded, i.e. one after another, the percussion should, and does, come in earlier than the first two tracks. This will 'prove' the hypothesis of formative causation. This seems to work out, there having to be less drastic, but more adjustments to the foundation provided by rhythm, be that via any of the instruments. As it happens, The Bat Elephant does sound more together, or am I putting into play the observer effect and believing that it sounds better. This one should definitely be 'blogged' for comparison of comments. The other test is that the rhythm should become faster as time progresses, knowing that a faster pace is easier to disguise mistakes within from my days in a band myself, as a drummer. It should work out better as the exponential decrease as rhythm increases. To my ears, it seems to. But, would really need someone else to take the time to give it a listen and say what they think. As a piece of music it becomes more easily digestible, but according to the hypothesis would if endured long enough just end up in a indistinguishable blur of noise, i.e. effectively a dronescape, with subtle nuances of pitch shifting the only apparent variability possible. So, in effect it catches up with itself and becomes 'at one', with the odd inclusion of more relaxed percussional elements and rhythmical structuring, because they get larger as they encompass more of the smaller pieces, so instead of becoming a runaway train, it finds a new sense of pace, with more within each 'stride'. Tricky, but I think it pans out. Interesting experiment.