It’s been three years since Pivot’s debut album Make Me Love You was released to significant critical acclaim, a J award nomination and much rotation of the title track on our airwaves. Reportedly taking six years to write and record, it is one of Australia’s best examples of instrumental post/progressive rock music. With their new release, O Soundtrack My Heart taking half the time to write, record and release, interest is high as to whether their sophomore offering will stack up or suffer the challenges – œfollow ups’ oft do – being eclipsed by initial inspirations until a – œmore mature’ third album arrives. On Friday night, this theory was tested, their new sounds quite a departure from what has come before.

Local support Secret Birds must include Caribou on their list of influences as their sound was as reminiscent of Daniel Snaith ’s dual drums, orchestral guitar and repetitive bass as ever heard before. Although not as melodic or layered, the two drummers were playing different rolls and fills – hence not rendering two drums irrelevant – the guitar formed a sonic wall of noise with some nice light and shade in the chord progressions, (think Explosions in the Sky) and while the bass was a tad lazy, the keys offered just enough flavour and looping to pull them over the line. At their most compelling as the tempo quickened, once these guys add some sweetness to their dark instrumental works, there will certainly be a keen audience waiting in our burgeoning underground post-rock scene.

Veering off course and driving a tangent straight off the musical highway and into some brutal subjectivity – I just did not get My Disco at all. What the? Seriously. This is not progressive or post-any-kind of rock as you know it. Rudimentary in the extreme, I cannot understand the appeal of the uninspired noise this trio belt out as though it’s actually good music. Guitarist Ben Andrews put on a show that would have whiplash victims reaching for their neck braces – much like the The Music’s Robert Harvey back in the day, his curly hair is part of the stage act and from the unrelenting head banging it’s assumed he really wanted to be in a hair metal band. This did not make up for the 5-year-old-gets-an-electric-guitar-for-Christmas-and-works-out-how-to-make-noise-on-it abomination that were his solos. While minimalism and experimental instrumentation can be appreciated when done well (eg Beta Band & Aphex Twin’s Ambient Works), their tracks were so repetitive & lacking of any redeeming qualities that I wished I’d dropped an e so at least Rohan Rebeiro’s precise drum work would appeal. There was a crowd at the front trying to work out what this band was about and then there was a crowd at the bar basically ignoring them. There were long pauses between their tracks, there appeared to be little to no movement on the bass frets and a fair percentage of the room just seemed to be waiting for them to finish, a number of punters heading down the stairs to wait outside for the headliners. I’m glad I had earplugs to protect me from the aural assault; a band I could never recommend except for sheer comedy value.

By the time 11.15pm rocked around, The Zoo was a much fuller venue – praise be the venue that publishes set times. From the outset, Laurence Pike’s percussion and drums defy a scriptive retelling that will do them justice. They were truly sublime. Intricate, detailed and complex, it was tom, snare, hats, rims and kick all over the place with a remarkable amount of seemingly disjointed changes within single tracks – each and every one working to marvellous effect. This heralded the introduction of sounds far more avant garde than their previous works. On guitar, vocals and keys, Laurence’s brother Richard Pike challenged him for stage supremacy purely through the power and energy he was putting into his performance. Evoking memories of Yeasayer’s recent show in this same venue, the vocals were lung-stretching cries, open mouthed AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHing, much like an extended call to prayer. Most tracks progressed just as this, with echo delay on the vox, droning guitar, production looping and deep bass.

The first half of the set created a thorough build up, the tempo rising consistently while the vocals continued to soar. It was not until the third track that we were treated to some familiar keyboard stylings as all three members moved to the front of the stage to play keys in unison. Turning the tempo down mid set, there was no stopping as Laurence and Richard played keys and Dave Miller moved from laptop to high-hat until Laurence could take over as he made his way back behind the kit. They did not miss a beat, it just melded. It was industrial. Machine screeches and assembley-line hydraulic gushes.

Near the latter half of the set, the simpler melodies of earlier forms and sounds, together with string-like movements over fusion drums brought yet another new influence to the fore. With parallels to Battles, there was a nice pause and then we were right back in familiar territory as the title track O Soundtrack My Heart commenced, melodic yet anthem-like; so much more of what we’re used to compared to the distorted looped fuzz that comprised the earlier part of the set. With a very short break for encore, the all encompassing vocal cries and booming chorus guitar started again; dangerously bordering on the monotonous as all tracks bar the title number we had just heard became difficult to discern from each other.

Fans of Make Me Love You expecting to bounce around to some of their favourite tracks would have been disappointed by this gig, as Pivot have (certainly evidenced by the majority of the new work played on Friday) moved on from those sounds. The set therefore felt limited and quite claustrophobic by the end with the vocal calls becoming all encompassing and losing the momentum of the set. An outstanding follow up? This is not guaranteed. Pivot’s Kid A? Quite possibly. Only time will tell.