I’m trying really hard to get into all this glitch-tronica. I’m pulling all my best entertained/deep-in-thought faces and buying what I think are all the right albums. But on closer inspection I think it might actually exist better as an abstract concept, or confined to the tastes of boys with thick rim glasses, than as a staple of my record collection.
Mewgatz, in the form I saw them, was a guy (sat down!) with various little instruments, toys (!) and pedals. I think he played guitar at one point. He sang very gently about dissatisfaction with artificial modern life (breaking new ground then) and being a bit of a moody bugger. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a bit of charisma never goes amiss. Some people might find him endearing, maybe even lovable. But personally I’ve got enough woes about my love affair with Microsoft windows without this guy chipping in.
Its sparseness felt more like an absence of some key ingredient (like chopped tomatoes?).
I would criticize the self-indulgence of only having one member (the other female counter-part was ill or mourning or the dog ate their key-tar or some other such made up excuse-unprofessional in my opinion) but I recently got into that new Crystal Castles album. Maybe that’s the problem; I feel saturated by pummeling electronica these days and unfortunately the minimal, disjointed tenderness of Mewgatz failed to make an impression on my fractured little mind.
For all their quirky instrumentation and happy-go-melancholy lyrics, I was just a bit bored. The whole audience was ultra quiet, and there was a cringe, rippling through the room like a Mexican wave when Ed (I’m not on first name terms, I just looked it up on MySpace) got out his fisher price spelling toys. I felt like I might be having more fun at home listening to Fourtet or musically masturbating myself on “garageband”.
Final verdict then: Good, not great. Nice venue though.
MP3: Mewgatz - Photocopy
www.myspace.com/mewgatz
OIB Records
Words: Jack Decie
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