Review Summary: A sphere somewhere between 1969 and 2011.
1969, New York, US: Neil Armstrong finally makes his giant leap for mankind, the Vietnam war is still kind of stuck and while the Summer of Love is already ancient history, its spirit culminates in Woodstock, probably still the most important festival rock music has seen.
1969, Vienna, Austria: The country is still led solely by its conservative party, the political clean-up operations after the end of WWII came to an inglorious end some time ago and domestic radio is occupied by middle-aged men with offensively inoffensive looks and even more atrocious Schlager music, serving as every mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers dream.
Conclusion: Austrian music had no 60s, actually not even 70s except for the occasional rebellious songwriter, bringing Austropop to life with folk rock that somehow combined our famous black humor with Dylan-esque voices and sound. Therefore things like hard rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop and, well, anything else were virtually non-existent in that small, small country.
Seems as it obviously took some time to finally find guys willing to serve as an outpost for bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin or The Who. The motto has to be "better late than never" though, because an LP with the strange name
"The Mustache Mozart Affaire" was quite a statement for bluesy rock in the vein of the early 70s. Vintage style keyboards meet both relaxing and driving drums and the distinctive British accent of singer Max Borchardt. Combine all that with the pop-sensibilities of the Kings Of Leon and you might get something like this.
And "this" might mean anthemic synth pop like
The Sea, stadium-sized rock like
Witches or the laid-back blues riffs of
Spaceships and
Monorail. Actually it means all of that.
The Sea serves as the necessary catchy tune that instantly grabs you with its simple synth melody, the great percussion and an overall sound in the vein of early 2000s indie rock. Though it is obvious that the indie scene might be their musical heritage, the smooth and precise guitar work of
Monorail with its relaxed, almost-psychedelic sound shows a completely different side, once again suggests comparisons to Jimi Hendrix and The Who.
For quite some time they try to follow in those very big footsteps. Successfully, or at least somewhat successfully. The lead guitar, while obviously not aiming for complexity, manages to draw you into those tracks together with the raw bass and the prominent vocals. The lyrics, while lacking any substance in their weird journey through space and time, fit in seamlessly with the slightly spacy electronic sounds. And the numerous synthesizer and keyboard styles, while hardly ever fully thought through, provide the character this album needs to separate itself from the overtly obvious influences.
All those qualities somehow vanish however, when it comes to both the opener and closer. Or their weak points finally show. In an attempt to create a sound as atmospheric as possible they ditch the great guitar work and all necessary speed for pounding drums, lazy keyboards and overtly soft vocals. Only the great trumpet part in the final minutes of
Nothing's For Free manages to bring back some of the vitality.
Exactly that is abounding in both
Thought Transference and
Sleep. Probably due to their very own style that resembles nothing else on this LP. Instead of sticking to the otherwise prevalent mid-tempo drums, they incorporate breakbeat samples that somehow accomplish to be both energetic and relaxing. Those are coupled on one hand with a very simple synth hook and subtle guitar work, on the other hand once again with great distorted riffs. Therefore with
Thought Transference you get a track that misses monotony only by a hairsbreadth, instead succeeds as some kind of psychedelic mesmerization. Alternatively
Sleep offers some of the most aggressive and powerful minutes and wins you over with its brilliant symbiosis of drums and guitar.
Since one should end a critique always on a positive note, I'll leave it at that. Which makes for a highly favourable conclusion: These guys do a fantastic job merging their numerous influences, effectively travelling through 40 years of music history - okay, they might have skipped a few decades - and finally ending up somewhere between 1969 and 2011 in their very own sphere. And visiting that sphere through
"The Mustache Mozart Affaire" might not be the worst way to spend one's time.
Recommended Tracks:
- Thought Transferance
- The Sea
- Sleep
