There’s a sense of testing the water on this debut release from keyboardist and conceptualist Angus Bayley. Fully fessing-up to his primary influences being defunct Brit proggers Troyka, their metal-edged contemporaries Three Trapped Tigers (it’s their guitarist Matt Calvert on production duties here), and drummer Joshua Blackmore’s solo electronica project, Strobes, it’s perhaps no surprise that this synapse tickling five-track EP dazzles and bamboozles in equal measure.

The common denominator between these two primary sonic foundations is Blackmore, and it’s his flexibile quicksilver beats and Terminator-esque virtuosity across an onslaught of odd-metered grooves that gives these labyrinthine tunes their jazz edge. Bayley’s clearly a gifted pianist and his outside-the-box approach may well be thanks to his self-tutoring and lessons from pianist Richard Fairhurst alongside his training as both research scientist and computer programmer.

Yet for all his acknowledgment of his progressive forebears, Bayley’s sound is a highly personal one. Opener ‘Commission’ rises from four repeated chords that expand into an Escher-like structure, synths and piano chasing each other down a series of overlapping musical staircases, drums in hot pursuit. ‘Connect’ slams with an aggressive rock-edged heaviness that’s soon usurped by brief dreamy cinematic interludes, menacing textures adding haunting filmic ambiances. There’s a nice twist to the meaning behind the title too, which (according to the press notes) implies that even leading a ‘normal’ risk-averse life could mean you’re in danger of never really living. Whether Bayley is living his best life here is still in the balance – at least he’s trying – either way, the journey so far is joyously maximalist, flawlessly executed and overflowing with ideas.