Short Reviews [Glistening Leotard - 2018 - "Six Butterflies Slightly Moving an Elephant in a Theatre"]

The full title of this six-track 32-minute-long EP is ‘Six Butterflies Slightly Moving An Elephant In A Theatre’, which got me interested straight away, even more so when I realised the title itself is made up from the song titles contained on it, albeit in a different order. Released in 2018, this is apparently the sixth CD from the German band (also available through Bandcamp) but is the first I have come across. It is also the last to feature singer Jessica Naser who has been there since the beginning but has now made the decision to move on. The band are currently advertising for a new singer, male or female, which is great to hear as this is a great release which I really enjoyed. As well as Jessica it features Andrej Henze (guitar), Ralf Gemein (guitar), Bjorn Muschen (bass) and Arthur Theuring (drums) and they are not averse to pummelling as if they are a new Muse or providing plenty of space within the arrangements to allow everyone to shine. Jessica has a strong voice, and the non-accented vocals are a key part of the album, but this progressive art rock collection is much more than just a singer with a backing band as everyone is integral to the sound. If the other releases are as good as this I find it hard to understand why I haven’t come across them before, although trying to research them has been quite hard as for some reason the band site is unresponsive and very few sites seem to have even heard of them, let alone written anything about them. This is highly polished music which at times is so sharp and abrupt that one could cut themselves on the notes, while at others it is languid and liquid. Glistening Leotard are most definitely a band to keep an eye on, as their progressive metallic artistic bloody good music certainly deserves closer attention, and any band who puts this much attention into a self-release deserves support.