The opening track of Mothers of Gut‘s new album Unking ebbs in like a funeral march across a Louisiana swamp. The faintly fatigued trumpets and even-toned, faded vocals ease the coffin into the crypt. The title track, “Unking” sets a morose tone to an otherwise tepid album. With only 6 tracks the album procession carries over 40 minutes worth of meticulous composition.
“Stalemate,” unfolds the narrative of the previous death song with wafting vocals. This garage grail of a band tells their stories backwards with patient privation, shifting from psychedelic peregrinations and classical cadence. The opening bird songs of “There is a Great Sadness to You,” makes for the graveyard appeal of this album steadfast and wholesome against the drab elements of rising orchestrals, distorted audio residuals and dripping water. However, the track speaks nothing to its title and leaves you leering on the edge of indifference.
The album threatens to loose its trajectory, but the chamber synths and choral guitars on “Smoke the Master,” make up for lost zeal with its hymnal rejoice. The flowery yet somber, keltic qualities of this song seem to better suit the previous track’s title, but perhaps the juxtaposition of the wind up at the end, make for an adequate transition towards the culminating sax-jazz harmonies. None of the following tracks offer any memorable variance.
Listen to “Wizard Tree” from by Mothers of Gut with their kraut rock funeral march from the recently released album, Unking out on Family Time Records.