Forma

From the start, Forma are all about the space rock-via-synth overload drones and melodies, and one suspects that former Bright member Mark Dwinell feels as perfectly at home with these tools as he once was with guitars. Dwinell and fellow members Sophie Lam and George Bennett work through one elegant melody after another that couldn't be any more at home with Omni magazine, Nova TV specials, and what would in retrospect be seen as the minimal wave underground, where Ash Ra Tempel's keyboard phase was more important than their early rock incarnation in the end. Each short piece is titled after the band plus a number — thus the opening "Forma 237A" — giving the whole a feeling of installations of a larger work in progress. If both the song's fairly short length and the relative similarity of many of them mean the album is more of a piece than a series of distinct numbers, well, it didn't exactly stop the Ramones. Not that Forma is recognizably punk rock but there's something about both the immediate catchiness of each piece, as well as individual elements, in each to make it a good listening experience. Quick, circular melodies and rhythms are contrasted against longer solos regularly but always engagingly. On a song like "Forma 197," with its heavy emphasis on quick beats and bass, the gentle solos as they emerge, both on electronic pads and on keyboards, adds a sweet fluidity and lift to the whole, a gentle exultance. When they step away from this general approach to explore other approaches, the results are quite fun. "Forma 247," if only a minute long, takes away rhythm to explore droned zone-out, immediately followed by the sprightly punch of "Forma 233B" in enjoyable contrast.