Everything Everything are a band that’s known to be something of an acquired taste, but our palate devoured them as if they’d been prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. Some dismissed their sound as over-complicated or too random, but we bloody loved it, finding them incredibly inventive and original, whilst still providing hooks and singles in abundance. Well, Mammal Club are being touted as a more palatable Everything Everything, so we’re poised and salivating all over our keyboard.
We’d heard Mammal Club’s debut EP, AU, upon it’s release on the Everybodys Stalking label on May 2nd, but like a well-behaved child we were waiting to see what they were like live at the upcoming Great Escape Festival later that month. What we failed to compute at that time was the fact that the Brighton festival is by far the busiest weekend of the year for us, with around 300 bands playing in our city, so it’s simply impossible to catch everyone. As amazing as the weekend always is, the list of bands you miss is almost as long as the list of bands you catch. Unfortunately Mammal Club proved to be perhaps the biggest miss of all, as it also meant we subsequently forgot to blog them. At least today we’re finally able to rectify this, as a set of Recommender pages without Mammal Club is like a cup of tea without sugar – warm and refreshing, but it could be so much sweeter.
Their EP proved to be yet another enjoyable example of the quality wave of artists currently bursting out of Newcastle and the North East, alongside the likes of Polarsets, Holy Mammoth, Let’s Buy Happiness and Grandfather Birds among many others. In fact the factory line has been pretty non-stop since Two Door Cinema Club started filling venues up and down the UK. It’s not just the rate at which bands are appearing, but the extraordinary talent that’s on show that’s so special. Mammal Club could prove to be the peak in the excitement due to their exceptionally great collection of songs.
The four lads combine in a racing storm of intelligent indie. Wilson Astley’s vocals are particularly enjoyable, often following the darting guitars and diced drums. This is non more evidenced than in the utterly remarkable track, Hang, which manages to feel as fried as it does luscious, standing the song on it’s brilliant lead refrain “Will you ever solve any of this?“. It’s direct and challenging, like all the best music. Lead track Otter is also a stunning piece of work. If you listened to the individual instruments on their own you’d never recognise the song, but once collected together they find form.
Away from the EP you still find lots of magic, particularly with the track Put Your Fears In Order, which pops like raindrops on a window, before it creeps into a vocal calling reminiscent of fellow Tynesider’s The Futureheads. It’s jagged indie pop with the edges smoothed down so the fit in your ears with ease. Music like this is perhaps a little reminiscent of Foals, but this band try to play their instruments in such an off-beat way that it’s almost as if they’re trying to put each other off. They take math rock to an orchestral level, where each of the instruments get utilised with such an astonishing level of skill, yet retain their own identity within something much larger than the individual parts, and that includes the voice.
We’ve been reliably informed that the next single, Painting, is due out in the Autumn once it’s ready. We very much look forward to that new release, as this is music that keeps you guessing at every turn, although it never loses you on it’s maze-like journey, eventually freeing you up for air upon each song’s close. It’s so inventive and without constraint that you have no idea where it’s going to go, nor can you imagine how the hell they concoct such well-crafted ideas. If this is music to be labelled for an ‘acquired taste’, then we are more than happy to prepare the table and invite you all over for a taster. (MB)
MAMMAL CLUB – OTTER
MAMMAL CLUB – HANG
MAMMAL CLUB – PUT YOUR FEARS IN ORDER
