Pre-order of Vortex Redux. The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
releases March 22, 2024
€6EUR or more
1.
Vortex (Redux)
2.
March of the Cyclopes (Redux)
3.
Parade (Redux)
4.
Mountain (Redux)
5.
Into the Light (Redux)
6.
Soon after…(Redux)
7.
Epilogue (Redux)
8.
Turn The Lie (Bonustrack)
about
Welcome to the definitive Vortex. The LP you’re holding has been on a journey, and no, not just shipping. Mouth’s second after 2009’s Rhizome, Vortex was mostly recorded in 2011 and 2012 over five sessions in a small space where the band rehearsed. Material was pieced together intermittently over a period of 11 months with Chris Koller handling guitar, keys and bass and Nick Mavridis on drums. That’s where it started. Two construction projects: the studio and a recording that would help define the course of the band in classic and melodic progressive rock, happening almost simultaneously in a creative meta-narrative that could easily stand as analog for the depth of pieces like “Into the Light” or the sprawling “Vortex” itself, which opens the record (new and old editions) in an encompassing display of impulse and fluidity.
Through experiments in atmosphere like “March of the Cyclopes” and toward the finish of “Epilogue,” Mouth married sounds that in other contexts would come up disparate, like finding a hidden magnetism between two north poles.
Most of the Vortex songs were created on the spot in the studio.
There would be no way to know it at the time, but this process would result in a collection of songs with a broad range, within as well as between the component tracks. “Parade” taps Sly Stone on the shoulder and asks if he wants to party (he does), while the penultimate “Soon After…” resonates with its smoky, mellow-jazz vibe. “Vortex” itself happens over six movements and was put together across different sessions, while “Epilogue” happened in a day.
Dissatisfaction with the original mix – and when an album has as much put into its arrangements as Vortex, that balance matters – would lead Mouth to offer Out of the Vortex in 2020 as a collection of alternate versions of pieces like “Mountain” and “Parade,” as well as the unreleased “Ready” and “Homagotago’s Paddle Boat Trip,” the latter an apparent successor to a cut from Floating. But sometimes a thing nestles itself into the back of your head and just won’t leave, and Mouth’s pursuit of a finished Vortex would lead them into the studio again.
Koller handled the remix himself in Oct. 2023, and in addition to helming the new master, krautrock legend Eroc (who drummed in Grobschnitt) brought a gong to mark the beginning of “March of the Cyclopes.” Like a lot of the finer touches on this Vortex, be it a hashed-out stretch in the title-track built on a drum/bass jam or just pulling the vocals and Hammond down a bit in “Epilogue,” the result is a stylistic flourishing that was there all along throughout the journey and now can finally shine as the band intended. – JJ Koczan / Dec. 2023
credits
releases March 22, 2024
Chris Koller: Guitar, keys, bass, vocals
Nick Mavridis: Drums, percussion, bass
Eroc: Gong on „March of the Cyclopes“
Top top stuff, reminds me a little of Stone Axe (perhaps unsurprisingly). Full of crunchy guitars, great riffs and everything that makes rock great. Love it ❤️ dommettchops
Delicious dark hybrid between Hard Rock and Stoner Metal. Both tough and melodic. Strong riffage ahead!
Full review (in French): http://www.metal-integral.com/chronique.do?chronique_ID=8902&groupe=the-death-spell&album=the-death-spell Pumpkin Thierry
Cover caught my eyes, then the content pleased my ears avid of stoning desert cruise.
Very solid debut EP, classical and well-tuned vocals, guitars. For pure enjoyment. frankwurst
Spaced-out krautrock and dizzying drone from this Irish band that packs a punch—the sound of being caught in an asteroid belt. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 9, 2023
A compilation of rollicking cuts from this Australian post-punk band that plays like a hybrid of the Velvets and the Stooges. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 3, 2017
I enjoyed this. I really like where they are taking their sound. Heavy, rockin' doom here. I believe this band has a long and storied future ahead. Gregory