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Birmingham-based self-proclaimed post-punk/noise-rock polymaths Mutes are “proud”, so they say “to reveal their new single Mere Slaughter, out via No Sound Records today, November 17th 2023″. Well yes, that was yesterday but we were busy yesterday, and what’s a day between friends? It is a rather tasty new single, a rather urgent one, a song with places to get to, all spiky and at the same time brittle. yes, you’re right, it sounds like a lot of things that may have flowed this way over the last quester of a century, indeed like a few things we might have released ourselves back in the day, but that is history and this and Mutes are the savage are the right here and now. We need the here and now, Mutes sound like it matters, here’s the video and the music and …
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“Originally conceived as a solo, primarily-ambient project by vocalist and lyricist James, Mutes released their eponymous debut EP in 2014. Things took a decidedly noisier turn with the release of Starvation Age in 2015, a full-band release that embraced the groups love of noise-rock and psychedelia. The group released their debut album No Desire in 2017 through independent label FOMA, their second studio album Pareidolia was released in 2019, while 2021 saw the release of Dreams of Being Cornered, their third and most fully-realised record yet, which saw Mutes capture the ferocity of their live show with urgent guitar freak-outs sitting alongside wondrous synth textures and vocal melodies with calculated ease.
The first taste of their upcoming fourth studio album, due in 2024, their new single Mere Slaughter is a three minute cacophony of dissonant no-wave guitar, anguished vocals and a belabouring rhythm section. The blistering track’s feral intensity serves as a raw reflection of a nation being slowly exenterated of possibility.
Recorded entirely live as a three-piece, the song is an evident display of the band’s desire to capture the uninhibited intensity of their performances.
Discussing what inspired the single, the band explain: “Mere Slaughter was born from a need to write something ugly and dissonant – somewhat of a sonic exorcism. A lament for a society that is slowly eating itself by means of division and gaslighting.”
Mere Slaughter is the first single to be taken from the band’s upcoming 4th studio album- due in 2024, here’s the Bandcamp thing. i see they’re playing Jaguar Shoes here in London on the 25th November.
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More of this kind of thing here
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