EP REVIEW: Interlude I – Mother

MOTHER’s short Interlude I is written in the same world as its predecessor record I. While a standalone story and idea, it fits in the gap of the wake of that record’s release. As a tale, it focuses on the journey of the listener, with the guidance of a mother figure who may at first listen seem to be a helper but becomes ever more self-interested as you listen harder.

The whole release consists of one long tune, The Loving Care Of A Mother For A Child. The epic 13 minutes and 13 seconds of tune has two distinct breaks. Its first two minutes are a screaming birth into the world, ebbing into a more reserved, slow bassline and tinkering, lazy drum beat.

There’s a sense of calm, that this is a safe place, but the deep bassline seems to evoke ideas that something slightly sinister is afoot, that you need to be careful of what’s hidden underneath. There’s a slow build into more of the band’s comfort zone, the complex comfort of post blackgaze quilts together a tapestry of warmth and softness, stitching in some sorrowful and heart longing melodies over the calm.

The two complete deconstructing moments build in very different ways. The second is much darker and more formidable. What began in a soft place overflows into a sense of dread, where you realise this mother figure within the song has been manipulating the sense of security for you, and is actually much more sinister in her mission.

It’s an interesting topic to place into a song, to have a maternal figure turn into a dark, menacing figure. It burrows in somewhere deep, the wrongness of it, the betrayal. In fact, the whole tone of the record becomes frantic, more desperate in the wake of the revelation that a mother is not a simple creature made to nurture, but a complex and even ominous being with her own needs and wants that might go against your own. The build into the more blackened elements of MOTHER is deftly done, and the final crash down into the weighty post-gaze stomps you into a real sense of loneliness.

This is a brief moment in the world MOTHER are creating, but Interlude I has the feeling of a short story, or a chapter in a much bigger universe. There’s plenty on offer in this short release, for those looking for a quick dip into the mindset of beautiful despair that is post blackgaze.

Rating: 6/10

Interlude I is out now via Consouling Sounds.

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