The first time I saw Pjaro was when they were supporting Joie De Vivre about 3 years ago. At this point they were just two abnormally mature looking teenagers playing an off-kilter muscular version of math-rock which people their age had no right being able to do. It was weird, slightly depressing (if they were that good at 17/18 how good would they get moving forward?) and highly impressive.
In the intervening years not a huge amount has changed. Pjaro still produce off-kilter, muscular math-rock but now they do it with an extra member (Adam from TDT, ex-Naisian, Bhurgeist, Collider + millions of other Sheffield bands) and with added vocals. On ‘Swordface’ the group’s new 7″ Pjaro distil their best qualities – their ability to slip in and out of weird, disconcerting grooves, weld them to jazzy melodies (reminiscent of Do Make Say Think) and an intuitive sense of dynamics – producing 3 intriguing tracks which grow on listeners. This is best shown on ‘xoxo’, a track which blasts through 3 sections which other bands would build entire tracks on in under 2 and a half minutes.
https://www.facebook.com/pjaroscps
