When you call your band Perfect Beings, you’re setting a pretty high bar. After several spins of Vier, though, it’s easy to hear this Los Angeles-based progressive rock band striving to reach that level. The music on this 72-minute CD (or double LP) is intended to be heard as one continuous long-form composition, with four main pieces—two divided into four parts and two split into five parts, for a total of 18 “songs.” Sounding at once ultra-contemporary and reverently classic, Perfect Beings channels Yes, Peter Gabriel and Spock’s Beard in the four-part suite “Guedra,” while sections of “The Golden Arc” play more like free jazz film music. “Vibrational,” meanwhile, sounds like latter-day Opeth and Anathema. In many languages, “vier” means “four,” but the English definition also translates to indicate someone who competes eagerly in order to win. That makes perfect sense.
