The Mojo Fins – Circa

CIRCA
The Mojo Fins
Price £4.95

The Mojos have been making music since the early noughties, a band who have always treated their 'art' with the utmost care. They are a serious band, making serious music. And ‘Circa’, their third album, is seriously good, representing their best yet.

 

Recorded once again at the legendary Rockfield Studios, and again produced by Dave Eringa, ‘Circa’ is the follow through album; whereby ‘Shake the Darkness’ saw the Mojos' sound given more textures, more foundation and a 'produced' feel that verged on the cinematic, ‘Circa’ is a more complete, rounded album, featuring a stream of great songs, from the opener ‘Longwave Reach’ to the closer ‘Hands of Flashing Light’.

 

’Longwave Reach’ is typical Mojos; tinkling piano, echoing drums, bass, guitars and strings harmoniously building up to the brief moments of cranked up and distorted guitar, adding a bit of menace and foreboding to the mix. 'I forgot, forgot to think of you/I lose the plot, get wrapped in myself' sings lead singer Stephen Brett.

 

’Introverts’ is the poppiest track on the album; helped along by an underlay of burbling synth, the song once again building up into a rush of euphoria, with a splendid guitar solo, echoes of U2 and The Sound making themselves heard. And it also contains some fine lyricism: 'Divested of the dreams/that served to keep us stationary/Extraordinary whims unfurl/Introverts'.

 

Brett's singing is powerful throughout, without ever overwhelming a song, and on ‘Circa’ he shows how good a singer he really is, especially on the very personal ‘Catholic Guilt’ track, a low key, acoustically finger picked song, the gentle melancholy of the music coalescing nicely with the regretful tone of the lyrics. Later on, the very personal ‘Friends’ sees Brett almost in solo mode.

 

 

’Arterial Road’ also harks back to the foreboding sounds and textures of The Sound, a hugely admired band from the early 80s, although whether or not The Mojos had ever heard of them is another story…

The REM feel of ‘Grass’ is another welcome change of gear; there's a lighter touch here, more of a band live-in-the-studio vibe, on this relatively straight forward number, which talks once again about possible regrets but this time with less guilt attached. 'We were care-free, we were guilt-free'.

 

’Black Sun’ epitomises the naturally euphoric nature of much of the Fins music, from the inventive tribalistic drums and Brett's downbeat vocal, it erupts into a glorious symphonic wave, before fading back again into the 'gloom.' While final track, ‘Hands of Flashing Light’, is two songs in one, a darkly grooving instrumental passage segueing into the final that finds the band once again musically dueling between dark and light.

 

The music of The Mojo Fins is often suggestive; the titles of the songs offering a direction to go, but not specifically pointing the way: ‘Longwave Reach’, ‘Exhale’, ‘Arterial Road’, ‘White Heart Beats’ and so on… their textured and euphoric meets melancholic atmospherics are yearning, regretful, hopeful, happy, sad, and all those other human emotions you expect to experience in the everyday. While the instrumentation is never flashy or fussy but spot-on throughout, little moments here and there serving to emphasise the mood of the song, but staying strictly away from the bombastic. In particular the drumming is inventive throughout, while the piano, instead of leading a song, is used as a tool, to embellish, to heighten the sensations.

 

The Mojos' generally euphoric and suggestive music is very much in the British tradition of bands such as Editors, the soundscapes and lyrics sympathetically conjoined. With the help of Dave Eringa, responsible for most of Manic Street Preachers back catalogue, but whose varied CV now also includes the rootsy R'nB vibes of the recent Roger Daltrey and Wilko Johnson album collaboration ‘Going Back Home’, they have engineered a complete work to be proud of, made more so by the evocative cover photograph of sculpted sand and rock formations of the Utah desert.
Jeff Hemmings

 

Website: themojofins.com

Facebook: facebook.com/themojofins

Twitter: twitter.com/themojofins

 

The Kooks recently unveiled a new song ‘Down’ which is due for release alongside three brand new tracks on 20th April. This is the first new material to come from the band since 2011’s ‘Junk of the Heart’. ‘Down’ has been described by the group as a mission statement for their forthcoming fourth album and it is a major departure from the more familiar sound of earlier releases. This time round they have worked very closely with hip-hop artist Inflo, who is credited as both co-writer and co-producer on ‘Down’.

On first listen I have to admit I honestly thought this song might have been a joke. To my ears Pritchard’s already distinctive vocal sounds like a caricature of itself. The surprise change of sound, from crisp indie pop to a more sample-led hip-hop inspired production is jarring. It seems to be a bit on the cluttered side: there are several layers of vocals and jangly guitars competing on top of what sounds like an old skool hip-hop break but may well be their drummer sampled and layered with percussion. After repeated listens The Kooks clear ear for melody wins out and I find myself warming to the track.

It seems The Kooks are taking a bit of a gamble by trying an approach which may alienate a lot of their core fan base. You have to respect them for trying something new and following their muse but for a lead single this just seems kind of messy. Here’s hoping they’ve got better material hidden up their sleeves and this is just a little teaser to break people into their new sound.

Adam Kidd