It's been more than a decade since I've heard UConn's Extreme Measures, and looking back on my review of Generation EX, I'm delighted to report that the group has unquestionably come a long way in the intervening 10+ years.

Their opening choice — Don't Go Chasing — is one helluva bop, and a song with which I was not previously familiar. (Indeed, the group deserves kudos right off the bat for repertoire that, even when known to me, is still material that feels fresh and not covered to death by the collegiate a cappella scene. But back to that opener…)

I can't know how much of Don't Go Chasing is Isaiah Carter (formerly of Berklee's Pitch Slapped) and how much is group member Eric Venables, but the collaboration is dynamite. It's tight; it's harmonically crunchy; it has texture in the backing vocals beyond just the bass and vp doing the heavy lifting. The solo is front and center and feels more "raw" (i.e. less processed) than one is used to hearing on an a cappella album, and the whole thing just gels delightfully. Great work.

What follows could easily be characterized in two ways: 1) on a positive note, the group continues its tightly tuned, well-energized, harmonically dense work on three more tunes that are in the same vein, plus one that is a little more out of the box (for this particular EP); 2) on a negative note, the group goes back to the same well a few too many times, but never quite synthesizes the formula as well as they do on the opener.

On Open Up Reimagined, the two biggest issues emerge and they plague the remaining selections on slices. as well. To be clear, what I'm about to describe are high-class problems to have. This is what one focuses on when the group is already doing solid work and there is an opportunity to drill down to technicalities that would elevate everything from very good to spectacular.

Firstly, the placement of the solo in the mix is confounding. Consistently, the team from Eric Scholz Productions opts to place the solo squarely amongst the background voices — almost as if they are all standing in a circle with the soloist in the middle and the listener is hearing everything from above. It's all the more frustrating because for the first 80% of this album, the group is favoring covers with an R&B/jazz/funk/blues sensibility, where the solo should feel almost effortless and/or like it's sitting gently on the backgrounds while it's being propelled forward rhythmically. Instead, I found myself struggling to hear the solo at times, buried as it was and in danger of being swallowed by the backs.

The secondary issue is of a similar nature but it relates more to the performance and less to the engineering — specifically in those same background voices. Don't Go Chasing is an energetic tune so the group coming in like gangbusters is A-OK. But Piano Song is so much mellower, more chill. Yet when the low end enters the arrangement early in the song, it's already insistent and becomes even more so as the song progresses. When the bass and vp kick in, the whole thing is far too heavy-handed and lost any semblance of the cool that inhabits the original. And it happens in much the same way on What Can We Do?, except it's right from the beginning. Anderson .Paak & Nate Dogg's original feels almost like a throwaway track — a casual rap over a middle-eastern-infused melodic riff that doesn't really do all that much in its three minutes. Extreme Measures tries to turn it into a more fully realized "song" and beyond the melody and lyrics not really supporting that concept, the arrangement here starts to show a bit of sameness from what has come before — the same bass slides into accentuated power chords, a similar breakdown to Don't Go Chasing, and the ever-present 9-11-13 extension chords in the final moments that aren't as interesting on the third or fourth go-arounds.

All that aside, though, a heartfelt "bravo" and welcome back to RARB, Extreme Measures. It's been too long and you've come a long way. Whatever my smaller critiques, I hope we get a lot more of this kind of music from your ranks in the coming years.

Mixed group Extreme Measures from UConn delivers the prototypical example of setting the stage and guiding its listeners intentionally in its high-energy EP, slices..

Each track has a great deal to appreciate from a musical standpoint, never resting on its laurels while shifting harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic content to deliver a fully explorative experience. Throughout the album, thoughtful syllabic choices highlight the dynamic and textural quality of each section and match the mood with aplomb. Introductory phrases, simple or complex, grab the listener and draw them into the journey to come.

Effective arranging choices help match intention to impact. Don't Go Chasing adds a high octave in the last chorus to dial the energy up an extra level when it's needed. In emptier moments of Piano Song, the focus is clearly shifted to the nuance of the soloist, who delivers each time. The background vocals on What Can We Do? are nothing short of a party, and not just bombastic and loud: the late dynamic build to the end is fantastic and ultimately so satisfying. Solo work is a strong facet to the entire EP, especially Piano Song, whose soloist Bella Coe begins subdued and earns a killer breakdown by the end, executed so freely and soulfully.

If there was any area for improvement here, it would be that the energy in the album is intense for the vast majority of the time, sometimes leaving little room for growth. The unfocused vivacity leaves a bit to be desired in Open Up Reimagined, and the lack of build to choruses in Premonitions is a slight letdown.

Those nitpicky points aside, Extreme Measures has delivered an EP jam-packed with musical mastery and stellar vibes. Check out slices. as soon as you have a free eighteen minutes.

Extreme Measures's new release, slices., is a big ball full of energy with poppy upbeat tracks, fun solos, and bright background vocals. And yet, I'm left wanting more from the group: more contrast, more variation in genre and dynamics ... just more of everything, really.

The album opens with a fun, energetic track in Don't Go Chasing — Zoe Bates bounces through the whole track and showcases a great belt with the backgrounds matching that boundless energy all the way through. I do like that the bridge has a bit of a change of feel with the dropping off of some of the upper vocals momentarily, but I would have reduced the volume a bit further to add more contrast. Shout out to both Dan Robinson and Eric Venables on a great vocal percussion, although it may be a bit exaggerated in the second verse where it takes the attention off of Bates.

But as the album continues on, you quickly realize that the other tracks are of the same feel, and the limited dynamics that we saw in the first track fall away a bit more. While I applaud that the group has found its bread and butter with regards to the types of songs that the singers are choosing to tackle, the next challenge is how to make them their own and much of that is through focusing more on the overarching message and musicality of each piece. I would like Piano Song to have a softer feel to the song given the message that Eryn Allen Kane is speaking to, but Extreme Measures delivers the song with the same volume and intensity as Don't Go Chasing. I want the nuances of the soloist to be more front and center and have there be differences in mood and emotion to come through on every track. Instead, what we get at times is just a wall of sound where I have to question if the group really knows what the musicians are singing about.

There are brief moments where the emotion is coming through — the intro to Premonitions has a lovely crescendo/decrescendo to start off the track, and I hoped that would carry over. However, as I listened to the rest of the track, it quickly became apparent that it was more of a one-off situation than a trend. In the next release, I challenge the group to focus more on the musicality of each track and how each song fits together collectively. Once that happens, Extreme Measures will be a force to be reckoned with on the Connecticut collegiate a cappella scene.