Crashings's Album Review for Mutemath
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A truly unique effort from a new avant-garde band that has already found its niche.
Mute Math is one of those bands that anyone with a place in their heart for rock can appreciate. Paul Meany and friends have looked past the rest of mainstream rock since 2000's Kaleidoscope Superior, when Mute Math was known as Earthsuit and bared a heavier sound, riding waves of sonically and lyrically nonconformist rock with fellow Christian artists The Benjamin Gate, P.O.D., and PAX 217. But Mute Math melds varying musical influences more deftly than Earthsuit and its rock peers of the time, and even in its most experimental outings, sounds effortless.
Mute Math on paper is seemingly rather haphazard. The first influence you'll hear is an ambience somewhere between Moby, DJ Shadow, Radiohead and Pink Floyd, y'know - post-rock, dream pop, shoegaze, space rock, math rock (no pun intended), trip-hop, and ambient electronica itself - you get the picture. But vocally, Paul Meany seems somewhere between indie (The Killers), adult contemporary (Sting), Brit pop (U2, Coldplay), with occasional bounds of the reggae and hip-hop that characterized Earthsuit. Adding to the effect are extended jams, and a teaspoon of jazz for good measure (which isn't surprising, considering that Mute Math is a New Orleans rock band). While pop/rock, indie, reggae, jazz, and post-rock certainly don't go hand in hand, all sound components have a similar mellowness that contrasts in Mute Math without sounding obscure or amateur. It's almost as if these guys have already developed their own music genre. Music doesn't force Mute Math, but vice versa, and most songs have a similar downtempo ambience that works perfectly.
Mute Math is also made up of many instrumentals (my favorites being the droning "Collapse," ambient "After We Have Left Our Homes" and the hip-hop beat "Polite"), but the real treat here are the actual songs. The disc's most accessible pick, "Typical," opens the album with the fun pop/rock U2 fans dig. "Chaos" introduces more ethereal qualities, which predominate the majority of the album. The follow-up "Noticed," however, is even more effective with its inspiring lyrics and an accompanying guitar riff that brings back memories of Speed Racer. Like many of Mute Math's cuts, it wonderfully finds hope in a loved one, which could be used in the context of relationship with God, or a close friend who reminds you of Him. "Stare at the Sun" is spacey and in a way, dark, which is a perfect companion to the confessional lyrics ("We stare at the sun, but we never see anything there / and the blur has become all that we'll ever see there.") "Break the Same" is similarly effective, but is more wild musically, and ends in an overblown extended jam.
The lengthiness of Mute Math and its overabundance of instrumentals are my only gripes, but they do contribute to Mute Math's unique sound. If you can imagine yourself chilling out to the tunes of a band like this, it's a must-have, because Mute Math delivers the sound so effectively.
Mute Math on paper is seemingly rather haphazard. The first influence you'll hear is an ambience somewhere between Moby, DJ Shadow, Radiohead and Pink Floyd, y'know - post-rock, dream pop, shoegaze, space rock, math rock (no pun intended), trip-hop, and ambient electronica itself - you get the picture. But vocally, Paul Meany seems somewhere between indie (The Killers), adult contemporary (Sting), Brit pop (U2, Coldplay), with occasional bounds of the reggae and hip-hop that characterized Earthsuit. Adding to the effect are extended jams, and a teaspoon of jazz for good measure (which isn't surprising, considering that Mute Math is a New Orleans rock band). While pop/rock, indie, reggae, jazz, and post-rock certainly don't go hand in hand, all sound components have a similar mellowness that contrasts in Mute Math without sounding obscure or amateur. It's almost as if these guys have already developed their own music genre. Music doesn't force Mute Math, but vice versa, and most songs have a similar downtempo ambience that works perfectly.
Mute Math is also made up of many instrumentals (my favorites being the droning "Collapse," ambient "After We Have Left Our Homes" and the hip-hop beat "Polite"), but the real treat here are the actual songs. The disc's most accessible pick, "Typical," opens the album with the fun pop/rock U2 fans dig. "Chaos" introduces more ethereal qualities, which predominate the majority of the album. The follow-up "Noticed," however, is even more effective with its inspiring lyrics and an accompanying guitar riff that brings back memories of Speed Racer. Like many of Mute Math's cuts, it wonderfully finds hope in a loved one, which could be used in the context of relationship with God, or a close friend who reminds you of Him. "Stare at the Sun" is spacey and in a way, dark, which is a perfect companion to the confessional lyrics ("We stare at the sun, but we never see anything there / and the blur has become all that we'll ever see there.") "Break the Same" is similarly effective, but is more wild musically, and ends in an overblown extended jam.
The lengthiness of Mute Math and its overabundance of instrumentals are my only gripes, but they do contribute to Mute Math's unique sound. If you can imagine yourself chilling out to the tunes of a band like this, it's a must-have, because Mute Math delivers the sound so effectively.
posted Nov 18, 2006
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