Mewgatz -Underfelt (OIB)
3/5
By: Charlie Potter
Yep, I like this. It's nice - I like the lo-fi-ness of it, but can't avoid the feeling that there's a lot out there that sounds just like it. The world of circuit bending, from whence this has arisen, has something very stuffy about it. It seems to me that there are a few genuine pioneers that just want to open things up and mess about with them until interesting noise comes out, people who have no background knowledge and will go on to make other amazing music not confined to circuit bending, and then you have a massive underworld of mp3 samples and snobby electronics, a world where everybody is copying each other, each of them somehow losing sight of what's important. They are the equivalent to people who buy toys for a purpose other than playing with them - overly possessive, obsessive compulsive weirdos, when they're at their worst.
Mewgatz has used all the classic circuit bending tricks - Speak and Spell, Furbees, old keyboards - and as such there's little in terms of what he has achieved as a technological pioneer on this recording. It's not rare to find people using very old, simple, programmable toys as instruments in noise music as I'm sure he's very aware, but just be warned that people will try and palm this off as an original gimmick. Don't listen to them.
The beauty in this recording is even comparable to that in the (albeit rare) examples of good music that you get at open mic nights across the land. I insist that this one man with his toys shares nearly the exact same sort of ethos as people at open mics, given that these are very song driven tracks. There are not just vocals all over the place in a haphazard manner, but there are proper, considered lyrics, and these are 'songs' in the correct use of the word.
I have grown to really enjoy the way that 'Underfelt' is so very nice and yet retains a bit of crust to the tone of everything. The sound of his voice reminds me of Bogdan Raczynski, which is by no means a bad thing, though at times you do wish he would sing up a bit - I think the whole sensitive one man composing in his bedroom angle here is taken too far. Mewgatz, the girls will still love you if you sing a bit here and there. Especially if you sing well. People will probably also undermine the amount of guitar on 'Underfelt' also, and become much too focused on the electronics side of it to realise what this album really is. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd written some of these songs on an acoustic guitar, the melody and structure becoming so apparent that the circuit bending is really quite peripheral by the end of it.
The real stand out track (though on first listen I never thought I'd write that) on this EP is 'Speak and Spell' (if only it wasn't called that - drags the attention a little too much toward the equipment and away from the song, nowotimean?), a song with thorough pop credentials, and one that's by far the most up beat moment. It contains two first class melodies along with another appearance of the generally very high standard of rhythm on 'Underfelt', and proves this guy has clearly got more in him. In the right context, it could be super successful. Really, imagine if adverts sounded like this...
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