Quite often band names make little or no sense, seemingly the result of a necessary evil to deal with when starting band and nothing more than a means to distinguish bands from each other. However, Norwegian progressive rock quartet 22′s commitment to their name is on a whole new level, making it the ruling principle of pretty much everything they do.

Led by Magnus Børmark, former guitarist in folk-metal-tronica outfit Gåte, their first ever concert was on February 2 this year. They played the Norwegian festival by:Larm on February 22 at 22.22 o’clock (that’s 22 minutes past 10PM for those of you working with the 12-hour clock notation) and this August and September they completed a 22 gigs in 22 days tour of Norway, their route forming a giant number 2 on the map. Oh, and this their debut EP was released on August 22.

Five songs long it’s a prog-rock tour de force seasoned with more than a dash of American The Mars Volta (just check out opening kick ‘molecyL’ and ‘algorythM’) and grand funk-punk, only pausing to underline their melodic flair in ‘suomiesE twinS’. They say that “22 is the music that comes from getting up at six in the morning and start composing.” I say that more musicians should start getting out of bed at six in the morning, because this plain and simply rocks!

Genre: Rock/Prog-rock
Who: 22
Title: E.S.P (Extended Sensory Play)
Distribution: Musikkoperatørerne
Year: 2008
Country: Norway
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
molecyL – algorythM – suomiesE twinS