Ostinato - Chasing The Form

The word from which their name comes (a musical term applied when the same piece of music is echoed, often using different tempos or timbres) seems all too ironically applicable to Ostinato. Relying heavily on bass as the main line of motion, the guitars are repeated and run through infinite effects to create epic dirges and towering mazes of sound that never really go anywhere. Like an instrumental Symphony X with a little less progressive metal and a smidgen more of the Mogwai school of indecorously quiet then loud-as-fuck thing. Add a dash of The Velvet Underground and Nico and the sounds of Chasing The Form begin to come together. It's dense, it's hard work and all too often songs run on and on, as if stuck in some terminal loop. Somewhat lost, the concept that runs through Chasing The Form ultimately proves more interesting than the varying results. [Neil Ferguson]