ManyMental Mistakes - Trois (ManyMental Records)

This dangerous slab of flesh-covered vinyl is a visceral, punch-packed screamer of a tour through a morphing blend of dancepunk, noise-rock and a haze of shoegaze. Though the indie-herd seems to be passing through a trendy resurrection of these genres of late, some got it and some really don’t. Trois sits firmly with the former. All the right elements on the album click tight like Lego blocks, and as colorful and playful, delivering one heady chop after another. The salvo from side one, “Death Proof” establishes itself will a thundering tom run broken by a chromatic fuzzy riff counterpointing some octave-rising bass thunder, the whole thing pounding into a hot-stepping dance-rock bridge and returning to the hypnotic header with Stooges – like focus. A breath, then “CCC” crashes in with a riff saucily cribbed from Isn’t Anything era My Bloody Valentine and inverted it over a sea-sickness inducing proto-goth throb of oscillating bass, kicked up in the air over and over by the spartan drums. The vocals kill me on this track, sung with menacing precision and controlled intensity by singer/guitarist Eva Stone. She really channels the darkness a la Peter Murphy, no small feat or ability!
The end of side one stutters a touch for me on the uncertain loping of “Birthday Party”, perhaps it’s the similar tempo and tone of the previous track, but I find my attention wandering somewhat… until the flipside smacks me back to attention with the math-punk punch of “Kill Kill Kill” invades my ears like an icicle with it’s gloriously mean squall of noise. That sea-sick sense returns of the rolling and pitching dirge-y psych of “My Way”, busting out the cheap flange pedals and layering call/response/male/female vox over the top of lacerating jams by bassist Sylvain and drummer MJ. Album closer “Quantum” floats some echo-laden guitar ghosts over a march tempo, some more Bauhaus-ian vocal layers before glissanding noise-riffs break everything down again. Ballsy move, ending on an instrumental, especially one as obtuse as this, but that’s the appeal of ManyMental Mistakes’ first full release, it’s density, it’s ferocity and singularity of vision. Even though some elements could easily be seen as references, they sit firmly on the sleeve here as decorations, a brave, exciting and totally rock and roll from a promising new band!