Mobthrow - Mobthrow

Out with your friends for a nice leisurely night when you take notice of that one bar you always pass but never go in. Well, let's check it out, you say to your pals and you slowly open the door. The sheer centrifugal force of what is playing inside hurls you into the wall, your comrades flee. Alone and without any regrets you choose to stay and listen, this is the sound which has ensnared you. The debut album from Mobthrow is an unusual one, a bizarrely constructed matrix of textures and mood. Once again, Ad Noiseam have managed to locate a very uncompromising artist's work to release. The tempo generally stays low thusly giving these tracks much more room to breathe, and unfold like a poisonous butterfly's wings. Yeah yeah, a lot of people like to call this style of music a certain word, but as I view that "genre" as nothing but bankrupt media created drivel, you won't find me insulting Mobthrow with it.

The remains of drum 'n' bass are littered all over this thing, many of my favorites (Teebee, Future Prophecies, Klute, Black Sun Empire, Concord Dawn) have often flirted with this sort of experimentation but none have gone so far as to bury a near classical overture at the heart of their albums. Mobthrow keep things nice and tense throughout this record, it's like being in a kitchen with all the pots boiling over and steam obscuring your eyes while it burns your skin. Then there's this strange aspect which may or may not be accidental to the proceedings: this outfit bend and mutilate the sounds of brass instruments in the same manner as legendary composer Elliot Goldenthal. Nicely inserted piano gives a tight-rope feel to one song in particular on here: "Deathnote". At times it reaches out to tap you on the shoulder as if to say, come along now... it's time.

All kinds of minute percussion flitters about in the work on 'Mobthrow'. Everything is viciously condensed with an unbelievably precise attention to detail. There isn't any kind of let up in the pacing of what's going on here, even if it is kept at a groove and not a steady thump. A lot of times, these acts have a tendency to let things run on but Mobthrow are concise. No filler is to be found on this collection of tunes, bank on that. The song "Angel Eyes" sounds like the groaning of locomotive gears on worn tracks, out of the intense pressures exerted little details and nuances emerge. His choice of beats is rather addicting, my head is nodding along to the soundscapes he's crafted and I'm already wanting to play this thing again. Brevity may be the soul of wit but this album could do with another two or three songs on it.

You'll find plenty of well placed acoustic instruments on "Mobthrow", they are used as accents to give tone and thicken things until it's an all encompassing cloud of impenetrable depth. Definitely one for the late night hours, but I've played it with the windows open during rush hour, always nice to give something back to the exhaust belching machines idling angrily. I believe some would say work such as this contains a lot of flavor, and I heartily concur. Put this record on around those short spring skirts and they'll be swaying in no time, but don't take my word for it... heh heh. Apr 18 2011