Mouthus - Divisionals

Mouthus
Divisionals
(2009, Ecstatic Peace)
RIYL = Skaters, Religious Knives, Double Leopards

I don’t know if I could get through with a Mouthus review without writing the word ‘clatter.’ So there, I did it. Divisionals contains the signature industrial clatter that Mouthus has been honing in on for years now and it never gets old. A limited edition vinyl release on Thurston Moore’s scattered Ecstatic Peace imprint, Divisionals isn’t going to claim the spot of Mouthus’s most quintessential release (Saw A Halo was just too good), but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t totally worthwhile, gritty Mouthus working it out massively as always. With two tracks to a side, Mouthus boils through four long droney scraping epics that occasionally come off as more pleasant than excruciating, at least when gaged with their previous work. You know what, when I step back I regocnize that I really shouldn’t like this stuff whatsoever. There is not really any logic to enjoying such brittle, carnivorous noises, and yet I just devour it up. Why is that? I wanted to mention also that I was sitting with Sassigrass (my co-Forest Gospelateer/wife) and she was talking some mad trash on a few well known blogs about the kind of music they cover and so I asked her to explain what kind of music she thought Forest Gospel featured and she said that it was primarily super obscure and ultra boring music and that those designations weren’t mutually exclusive. Slam! Heh, well Mouthus probably fits that description for a lot of people, but I can’t help but really enjoy it. One man’s music is another man’s tools for tortured interrogation. It is funny to see that popping up in a lot of hater's descriptions of some of the noise popularized in the last couple of years. Well, I tell you what, if I was getting interrogated to Divisionals I wouldn’t give up an iota of information. This trash can cluster crunk of cracked percussion and grating electronics is just too too good. Naw, but grill me with some Lady Gaga in the background and I’m bound to spit up some info in 10 seconds flat.

-Thistle

Mouthus with my homeboy (and apparently theirs as well) Axolotl

Mouthus - Saw A Halo

Mouthus
Saw a Halo
(10.2007, Load)
8.0/10

Mouthus created Saw a Halo (along with everything else they have released since their inception) as the solution for bad neighbors. You know, the kind that have innumerable occupants that are awake at all hours of every day - that never learned how to use their "indoor voice" - who seem to be endlessly and obnoxiously laughing outside your bedroom window. Mouthus is for the kind of people that seem to feel that since they are outside they should just open up the backdoor and turn up the bass on their stereo so that they can hear it while they talk with their cousin who is pounding her own tunes in the car parked five feet away from that same backdoor…and all at 3 in the morning. I obviously have an axe to grind here and Mouthus is the solution. They always have been when the battle gets dirty because dirty is basically synonymous with Mouthus. However, on my first listen of Saw a Halo I was shocked. The opening track, "Your Far Church," is a virtual U-turn for the band, with Mouthus appearing to be turning a sympathetic leaf to those who have endured their crushing audio shrapnel. The opener is drifting acoustic ditty that actually resembles a song. For Mouthus that means vocals with discernable lyrics and instrumentation that can be argued as melodious. You might even be able to pass it off as pretty. However, a minute before "Your Far Church" closes, Mouthus' signature audio destruction begins to leach in and the following track, "Armies Between," transforms into what we have come to expect of the grizzly duo. The remainder of the album tracks a glorious progression in production (the album is their first recorded in a studio) and textured gristle from 2006's The Long Salt with additional depth and movement (including another track featuring discernable lyrics!). The album is another successful speaker destroying, neighbor defeating machine of a record. Turn this up to eleven and watch your neighbors moving trucks arrive. Recommended for noise addicts with no sympathy.

-Mr. Thistle

Mouthus - "Your Far Church"