Food Pyramid: Creation Beat EP Review

Food Pyramid has made a sly transition over the last few years. The local group has gone from being mostly heady, spaced out kosmische collective to a group that has expanded both its membership and its sound over the last 18 months.   Expanding into new age on a CD last year and really stretching out their pallet to more house influenced sounds on their Moon Glyph LP Mango Sunrise, the group proved adapt in all of their shape shifting incarnations.

Their first release of 2013–a year that promises to be as productive as 2012–is the electric EP Creation Beat, a buoyant slab of house influenced music that is the most charging collection the group has put on one record.  There have been moments of the dance-ready hysteria on different releases, but the four long songs stretched over the two sides of Creation Beat are the most constant, in your face group of songs that Food Pyramid have released yet.  Starting with the sparkling synth and deep groove of the title track, the record sounds like it would fit in with the bliss-house material that the amazing 100% Silk label has been churning out over the last few years.  Things get slightly more spaced out with “My House,” before coming back with the strutting bass line and wobbly, colorful synths of “Eat Street.” Things end on the strength of the manic, assaulting throb of “Crosshatch,” which rushes through the speakers like waves of molten lava.

The EP clocks in at a hair less than 25 minutes, but doesn’t waste one minute of the time.  While they have ventured outside of the headphone orchestra territory before, Creation Beat is the most confident step outside of that territory to date, and another (electronic) feather in the cap of a group that have proven to be one of the very best we have here in the Twin Cities.