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Album of the month :

September 2003

 

MUDO (E) :

" Mudo"

( Zebra)

 

Facts: MUDO hail from the Valencia area and were formed in spring 2000. This is more or less the most comprehensive info you can get on this enigmatic new band. Check out their website: you'll find nothing but a simple photograph of four shadowy silhouettes standing behind a window. The CD cover won't help you much either: it's plain blank except for the name of the band handwritten on the lower right corner. Inside there's hardly more info but at least you'll be happy to find the band's line-up and a short introduction text by MUDO's frontman, Javier Marti. Don't expect a regular biography though: this is more about trains pulling into stations, woods of millenary lime-trees, the unique light of dusk on La Sierra de Bérnia, the changing coulours of maple forests at fall, or what it is like just to taste the foam of days. ... This may seem a bit abstruse at first. Nevertheless, this impressionist imagery fits well to the hazy outlines and cinematic qualities of MUDO's music, and finally tells more about the band than any vain attempt of description. A few keywords also provide further interesting clues: Bristol, Nashville, Crustration, Verlaine and Lloyd... Obviously, MUDO move in the same twilight area that gave birth to the Bristol scene. They're just more on its dark side. From bands like Crustration and Portishead, they keep the instant melodic appeal, the lush and evocative soundscape, and the shimmering brilliance of silk vocals. Victoria's Secret, for instance, a dazzling cover of a song by Lisa Germano brings the listener into exquisite ghostly realms. Steal it, the only track here with male vocals, rolls nonchalantly, displaying a touching sweet n' sour melancholy. But when that beauty threaten to become too innocuous, MUDO have no hesitation in soiling it with noise and discords. It's the drilling sound of trumpets on the album's pièce de résistance Still Life, a strangely unhiged bridge in the middle of the gentle Anchors, the sudden burst of distorted guitars on the instrumental opener I'm in Love With a Yew Tree, or the breathtaking series of caresses and slaps on the outstanding ( and personal favourite) Rainroads.

I don't remember having heard such an impressive debut from a Spanish band since a very long time. This is not yet an achievement though. Clocking at a deceiving 32 minutes, the album is far too short for that. And we can't help wondering what will happen to the band now that Ana Reche, the main vocalist on this recording and certainly one of its strongest points, has quit... Answer on the next MUDO album. In the meantime, and despite the justified drawbacks on its length, check this one and enjoy.

 

MUDO :

http://www.musicaendirecto.com/mudo

LABEL :

http://www.zebrarecords.net/

Mailto:music@zebrarecords.net

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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