The Yes Men
Prog|Issue 141
The Parallax Method say they aren't seasoned musicians when it comes to theory. Instead, they're full of happy accidents that inspire their free-flowing instrumental explorations on, Folie À Trois. This is the story of The Parallax Method embracing the good, the bad and the ugly for the better of their music, resulting in a head-turning debut album.
Phil Weller
The Yes Men

For the reviewer whose pointed words inspired the name of Folie À Trois' opening track, The Parallax Method's debut album will be a bit of a disappointment. For readers of this magazine, however, it beautifully summarises what makes the joyously obtuse yet refined Derbyshire outfit so appealing.

"We've Learned Nothing is a reference to a review we had," bassist Ben Edis explains. "The person didn't like the first EP and recommended we put vocals in and started following more normal song structures. So when he reviewed the second EP he said, "They've clearly learned nothing from my last review.' And he's right. We have clearly learned nothing, because now we're doing more of the same. So we thought it would be funny to open with that statement; we're doing what we are doing and we're happy."

For the instrumental trio, getting to the precipice of their debut LP's release has been a long journey. Yet it's one that's been perennially defined by a collective desire to challenge and inspire one another, no one else.

"The Parallax Method is very collaborative," Edis continues. "It's all of us bringing ideas and chewing them over with one another, working through them and refining them and we vibe off of each other in that process.

"There were a lot of mistakes made when we were recording," he continues. "In a lot of moments we'd look at each other and go, 'Wait, what was that? That needs to be on the record.' So we'd have to listen back to it, figure out what the mistake was and incorporate it into the song. It's a very organic, evolving process between the three of us."

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