I really don’t get why Xrayok was likened to Mogwai in the RIYL present; when the band begins their “Like Life”, there are more hints in tracks like “The Luster” to mid-eighties and early-nineties gothic rock than anything. This sound is not removed during songs like “Fall Of Your Eyelash”. In this track, Xrayok seem to have placed a disco-like bounciness in the drums, which splash through at all times. The atmosphere present on “Fall of Your Eyelash” rivals the entirety of the instrumentation, making for a full-sounding track that is sly while still ensnaring listeners.

Xrayok ties their very classic sound to something a little more current in the angular sound of the bass/guitar dynamic present in “Smile”. The quicker tempo of “Smile” make this into a sleeper dance track sound; the vocals haunt individuals even as the synth and drums thump at the low end of the track. “Lonely Souls” is a slower track, a re-interpretation of “Smile” that really makes “Smile” less of an outlier amongst the songs on this EP. By filling in this missing piece, Xrayok is then shown to have a range of different sounds and styles that should get a wider selection of individuals picking up their music. The band only goes on for twenty-five minutes on “Like Life”, but individuals will feel by the end of the album that they’ve been listening to the inner confessions of the act’s soul for hours and hours.

However simplistic tracks like “Doesn’t Matter” may sound on the surface, there is a complexity present on all of Xrayok’s tracks that will only open themselves up when individuals give the disc a few spins. A great deal of this density is created through the complex interactions that each member of the band has with the entirety of the rest of the band; “Doesn’t Matter” is a maze of influences, sounds, and styles that will ensnare individuals for a while to come. This is a powerful EP, one that does nto slack off towards its end. The fact that the album is about half the length of a full length gives me a good feeling that Xrayok should succeed when their full-length is released. Haunting, brilliant and fun, “Like Life” will be a great purchase for individuals of all stripes, regardless of their musical tastes. Xrayok burn their own trail through influences in the creation of something that is new and exciting.

Top Track: Sunshine

Rating: 7.0/10

[JMcQ]