Musuji

What do you get when you cross Rage Against the Machine with a sense of humor? For one thing, you get press photos staged on a golf course with the resulting band wearing pastels and floral patterns. You also get moments of serenity that keep Musuji's debut EP surprisingly off balance. Relay starts off with the guitar-less, world-music title track, which, in its minute-and-thirty-second run time, never pegs the levels. The vocals never rise above a sort of shouted whisper. The song fades into "Panic," a track with a big nasty guitar hook and some apocalyptic yelling. From there, it becomes clear that the latter is Musuji's staple, and "Relay" is one of two interludes between more conventional prog and hard rock. And then there's track five, "Danger Zone," a jaunty little number with a piano-driven melody and a slap bass line. That makes for three distinct and very discrete musical styles on a six-song EP.