If you allowed And So I Watch You From Afar to make a beautiful lovechild, you’d possibly end up with Race The Flux. Their newest gift to the musical world comes in the form of a five track EP entitled ‘Olympians’. This is their first offering since their debut album, ‘Dutch Buffalo’, and it’s good to see that the calibre of their music is still high despite the more condensed offering.

‘Olympians’ features five tracks that are different for all the right reasons. Whether it’s the strange structure of the mammoth Olympus Mons or the colossal Big Fig, there’s plenty to enjoy on the EP.

Opening with initially innocent Minus Teeth, it doesn’t take Race The Flux long to start guitar noodling and inducing dangerous quantities of head nodding. The guitars interlope and weave around gliding vocals and a thundering rhythm section to kick the EP off to a monumental start.

Big Fig is a catchy math rocky track with intricate guitars and catchy hooks. The vocals really add an extra layer to the sound of Race The Flux – something many math rocky bands will ignore. The lyrics are well written and the chorus is utterly contagious, illustrating far more than just the instrumental talent of the band throughout. The bass and drums combine to support the glistening guitars that sit on top, creating a truly stunning track that will have you hitting replay again and again.

Go! Dive! Ahh! initially sounds like an And So I Watch You From Afar track from as far back as Gangs, but as soon as the thirty second wall of sound comes to an end, Race The Flux regain control. The refrain of “I hope it was worth it” will have you singing along by the end of the song. Each section of the song is different but they all manage to meld well together and carry the song through its unusual structure.

Olympus Mons may be the largest mountain on Mars, but it’s also the biggest track on this EP. It manages to be atmospheric and ballsy at the same time. The first minute is balls to the wall rock before the vocals kick in and the song begins to really take shape. At around the four minute mark the song takes off with a mash of vocals, a guitar solo in the background and hammering drums. The final fifty seconds consist of delicate piano which leads into the closing track, Breathe, beautifully. Breathe is an apt closing track that slows the intensity down to something a bit calmer… by their standards, anyways.

On paper, the heavy guitar riffs and gentler sounds shouldn’t work, but it’s clear that Race The Flux are one band that didn’t even glance at the handbook. The sound they’ve created is unique in every sense of the word and from the thunderous guitars to the strange song structures, it’s impossible to not enjoy Olympians. Race The Flux are definitely on to something here.