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Mamuthones may have originally taken their name from the death-masks used in rituals in their native Sardinia, and initially emerged from the Italian occult psychedelic movement alongside the likes of Father Murphy, Mai Mai Mai and their labelmates Lay Llamas. Yet now, in the wake of their Rocket Recordings debut album ‘Fear On The Corner’, the band find themselves undergoing a metamorphosis from mystical and ceremonial realms into a direct connection with the everyday, the personal and the political.

This vibrant reinvention also sees Mamuthones transcending their roots in Italian prog and soundtrack work and shifting their modus operandi firmly in the direction of a distinctly New York-based headspace - a realm of mirrorballs and black-clad basements both As the band’s Alessio Gastaldello tells it, this is a groove-based. eclectic style that finds its metier in the realm of two albums which are paid direct homage in the record’s very title - the bleak and kinetic ‘Fear Of Music’ by Talking Heads and the iconoclastic, heat-haze repetition of Miles Davis’ ‘On The Corner’. “The songs deal with fear.” he clarifies. “Fear of the present, of human situations, fear of the new political situation, but also fear of relationship breakdown, fear of not finding “a place in the world”, fear of fear itself”

Yet this is principally an aural landscape whereby the eclectic mischief of ZE Records, the sonic brinksmanship of ‘Tago Mago’ era Can and the post-punk songwriting flair of LCD Soundystem can happily form communion in a post-2AM reverie. “it is a big dance party for very sad events” clarifies Alessio, on the disparity between the serious nature of this record’s subject matter and its distinctly hedonistic atmosphere. “We are a kind of Titanic orchestra playing and dancing while the ship goes down. The party must go on

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sitting comfortably between the art-rock angularity of Devo and the spoken word aesthetic and visceral drive of Sleaford Mods (as well as the already mentioned Talking Heads and Miles Davis influences). Mamuthones manage to take us through a tour of a wide variety of impeccably absorbed influences without sounding like any of them. Fascinating and ultimately brilliant weirdo rock.

TRACK LISTING

01/Cars (4:47)
02/Show Me (4:53)
03/Fear On The Corner (5:34)
04/The Wrong Side (5:27)
04/Alone(8:11)
04/Simon Choule (4:45)
04/Here We Are (10:08)