MUTEMATH

März 8, 2010 in Band Recommendations
Tags:http://roymitchellcardenas.blogspot.com/, http://www.lastfm.de/music/Earthsuit, http://www.lastfm.de/music/Mute+Math

Today’s article is about a band I have liked for ages and rediscovered them in winter last year when they released their current record ‘Armistice’.

The American band ‘MUTEMATH’ was formed in 2003 and has released two albums and three EPs so far. In early 2007 they also released a live record called ‘Flesh and Bones Electric Fun’ from their concert in Las Vegas in the fall of 2006.

The quartet is lead by Paul Meany who also started the project of MUTEMATH. He is pretty much the allround talent of the band. He plays the keyboard, rhodes piano, bass, keytar and sings the lead vocals. Darren King, who plays the drums and does all the programming of their songs, formed the early duo with Paul Meany in 2001. They knew each other from Meany’s former band ‘Earthsuite’.

Later, Greg Hill and Roy Mitchell-Cardenas (a link to his blog is tagged at the top of this article) joined the band and the first EP with the name of ‘Reset EP’ was released in early 2004. I personally really like this EP because it is one of the quietest records they have produced so far and it hardly contains any rock elements, my two  favourite songs of this EP are ‘OK’ and ‘Reset’. Both of them have areally quiet and simple sound, hence you can fully concentrate on Meany’s beautiful voice which I absolutely adore. Its so unique and full of emotion especially in their early works.

Moving along in timeline, the Live DVD/CD was released in late 2006, but as I am not such a big fan of live records I never really got into listening to their live footage. Most importantly, their first long-play record under their own name was released in the same year. ‘MUTEMATH’ was and still is their most successful record which makes sence to me because i think that this records contain a lot great songs and their own individual sound has also improved since the bands foundation.

My favourite songs from this record are ‘Break the same’, ‘Typical’ and ‘Control’. I actually got to know this band through their single ‘Typical’ and it is still my all time favourite song by them and was also nominated for the Grammy the next year. On this record the band used a lot more rock elements than before but at the same time they started to play around with a few post-rock elements which makes the record more interesting. By mixing up different music elements on this CD MuteMath succeeded in producing a record for a wider range of people who like post-rock on the one hand and alternative rock on the other hand. This might be the reason why I have liked this band for all this time and because they do not stick to one particular music genre it is always exciting to listen to their new records because they seem to change from year to year.

In 2009 the band was on the ‘Twilight’ Soundtrack with the song ‘Spotlight’ so that’s why the band got pretty famous by the end of last year. At the same time they released their second LP called ‘Armistice’. I was actually kind of disappointed by this album, maybe because I have not listened to it so much but also because I miss the rock elements on this record. The previous songs were also really quiet and under a higher post-rock influence than they used to be, but this record just doesn’t do it for me. Except for one song which has been stuck in my head for weeks now. The song is called ‘Clipping’ and I really enjoy listening to it because there is a part in the middle of the song where a violin is playing and that gives the song a really unique touch because you will hardly ever find instruments like that in their songs.

Another song I would recommend is a song from the ‘VIP Tour Edition bonus tracks’ and is called ‘Armistice (2nd Line Version)’ featuring the Rebirth Brass Band. It sounds a lot different to their usual music because they are featured by the tuba and sousaphone  player Philip Frazier and his brother and the trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.  This combo of MuteMath and a Brass Band is really interesting, quite a shame they didn’t include that song on the actual record.

To finish up today’s post I would highly recommend you guys to give this band a listen. Paul Meany’s voice is simply amazing and really relaxing to listen to after having a hard and exhausting day :)

The band is playing a number of shows in the United States this summer; I am dying to see this band live so I really hope they are also coming around to Europe soon!

enjoy listening, leave me comment and spread the word :)

with love and thanks.