The Mules - Save Your Face (Organ Grinder / Kartel)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Oscar Wilde. Lewis Caroll. Sir Harold Acton. The Reverend William Archibald Spooner. Yes, Oxford has a rich history of cultivating eccentrics.
Also hailing from that venerable City of Dreaming Spires are The Mules- and their schizoid debut record attempts to add that peculiar legacy. Specializing in bursts of short, sharp manic musical energy, the band succeed in capturing a disquieting sense of loopy abandon without falling victim to contrived 'zaniness.'
The delirious, disturbing 'Polly-O' rekindled Rockfeedback's youthful terror of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days' (seriously, along with 'See Emily Play', you couldn't wish for a more distressing induction to classic progressive rock.) The Mules often sound like deranged subversions of other artists; offering the unhinged Bowie glam of 'Stamp Collecting' and 'We're Good People', and elsewhere a re-working of Franz Ferdiand's spiky 'This Fire.'
Other highlights include 'Picking In My Business' - think The Young Knives gone East End Music Hall- and the nutty, early Modest Mouse hullabaloo of 'Plenty Warning' and 'And Then Again.' Truly, there must be something in the River Cherwell....
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