It’s been a long time coming, I’ll say that.
Leeds’ math popsters Wintermute may not have been around for that long (blimey, four years went by quickly), but their full length debut has been waiting in the wings for longer than expected. Last year they were supposed to release their debut EP, ‘Fun With Wizard Stencils’ – they even donned capes and cowls for one performance to celebrate the fact. Then On The Bone ran out of money and the record never materialised. Fortunately Big Scarym Monsters have signed them up, picked up the remnants of ‘…Stencils’ and conjured up an even meatier debut. Patience is a virtue, I guess.
Using ‘…Stencils’ as a stencil, the ‘muters have taken this opportunity to provide with a ‘work to date’ piece much like Vessles did last year. The original EP material has not been dicked about too much and still sounds very crisp – Dan and David’s guitars pick at each other in pentatonic adagios (with occasional showboat flamboyance from David), Chris’ bas rumbles in a cool jazz style beneath… a little too far beneath and Ben’s drums display the rhythmic attention of an ADHD goldfish who’s misplaced his ritalin in the underwater scary castle. Dan sounds as hysterical as ever and songs express their affection to all things obscure such as Sega games, Kyuss and At The Drive In. It leaves you with ants in your pants, but it’s very good, especially the new Baroque of ‘Spanish Girls’ and the cavalier riff splicing occuring in ‘Dead Or Not He Was Wearing Sunglasses.’ The silly names also remain untouched.
For new fans, the lads have included a fair whack of their old stuff. ‘Gambling or Playing Cards,’ their first single, is starting to sound it’s age as does b-side ‘Ask A Stupid Question,’ though they do pack a powerful punch, especially ‘Ask…’s victorious cry of ‘exclamations mark!” Faring better are ‘Shark vs E-Boat’ and ‘Fall of Hans Gruber’, the first of which has some of the best half-fiffs ever and the second which has been turned into an almighty build fest that climaxes in some huge crunchy guitar riffs over Dan’s voice.
Of more interest to the die hards is the inclusion of two brand spanking new songs,’Irrational Fear of…” and “Disco Loadout”. Irrational is surprisingly gentle, with minimal guitars and shuffling drums that compliment the reined in voices of Chris and Dan – Chris’ voice on this is a bit of a revelation. The cellos are a bit much, but it does show a less frenetic side to Wintermute and a timely change of pace. ‘Disco Loadout,’ however, is a beast of a song. Flicking between three four and four four, the pace is exhausting but the complexity is more integrated into the song – it’s the most complete any of Wintermute tune so far and smooth as oiled mirrors,
Overall, this a great album, whether it is a gateway or musical old friend. The songs show a real progression, both stylistically and musically, and the two new songs point to very interesting pop directions to pursue. A bit more work needs to be done in the mix but apart from that this mathy fasttrack album shows both Foals and the Futureheads have something to fear in their math supremacy.
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