Mute Math's Armistice

Well now, it has been a while. Nearly a year in fact, which is approximately a third of the time that Mute Math has kept their fans waiting for a new full-length album. I'm going to start now by doing exactly what they have done, by alienating about half the fans with a strange new direction. Yes, I'm going to review a music CD.

Now I realise that quite early on Paul Meany stated that people who loved the first album probably won't like the sophomore, and I'll state right now that I thought the first album, referred to from here on as 'STDA' (or 'self-titled debut album'), was almost perfect. From that you can probably deduce the direction for the rest of this review.

Now, I don't hate it. In fact it will probably be spending the next few months in pride of place on my MSN 'What am I listening to' display. However, there's plenty of things about the new album that have left me out in the cold.
To start, the whole album has been ruthlessly trimmed so there are no more tension-building intro and outtro sections to the more prominent songs (think 'Collapse' and 'After We Have Left Out Homes'). The entire album is like a collection of singles, and there are no purely instrumental tracks like Reset, either. With any other band I wouldn't care, but I was of the opinion that these medleys were an integral part of Mute Math's untidy, complex and organic style. Everything is far more self contained, and as a result less atmospheric. All of these tracks were prepped for single release before they even left the studio.

Now onto the instrumentation. Great, right? Wrong. Go stand in the fucking corner.
Well okay that's a bit harsh. Some of the new instruments they're using are really interesting and I especially approve of the extra piano that tickles away in the background of many of the tracks. However, in order to make room for all this new jazzy, ethnic sound much of that which is quintessentially Mute Math has been lost; no more Atari, no more pseudo-'80s synthesizer backing tracks and messily distorted sampling (with the exceptions of Backfire and Clipping). Every track is akin to a series of random instrumental solos played over each other. It's fair enough if they want to mix up the composition and instrumentation a little bit, but when you change the overall sound to the point where it doesn't sound like you anymore you've got a problem.
The hyped up and loudened drums on every track also reek of fan service to worshippers of Darren's insane drumming. Not that there's anything much wrong with that, since Darren King is probably one of the best drummers alive at the moment, but I think it cheapens the whole experience.
One thing I did love here was Paul's vocals, which have improved immeasurably since the first album. He seems to have stretched his range and become far more smooth than he was on previous tracks. I will also mention Greg and Roy here, because their talent has become far more apparent with this new style. The bass and guitar solos in some of the tracks are 'wicked sick' (pause for distant gunshot sound for using that phrase).

Finally, the last thing that's bugging me is the tone of the album. Everything is more dark and brooding, like a hormonal teenager going through a goth phase (irony realised, thank you). The first half of the tracks of the album sound aggressive and have some very cynical lyrics.
Speaking of lyrics, this is another thing I wanted to bring up. On the STDA the lyrics were some of the most interesting I've ever heard. Almost everything was ambiguous and spiritual, unnerving in some cases, and it added to the atmosphere of the thing. No track ever made a statement, but rather howled questions into an abyss. On Armistice we find stuff like Electrify with its generic 'she' that reminded me irresistibly of Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys. Another throw-away 'the girl' track like the four hundred billion million others out there. Obviously this isn't a universal truth; examples like the brilliant bonus track 'Architecture' (which can be found here incidentally, it took me weeks to find) keep the ambiguity alive, but all of their tracks used to be like this.

Now for all my bitching I will just say that I do love Armistice. It's just no longer the head-above-the-crowd indie rock that it used to be. And no, I'm not one of those 'indier-than-thou' pricks who won't listen to any band with more than nine fans, but so many groups are pulling the weird instrument angle (Coldplay's Viva La Vida springs to mind) that it just doesn't have the impact it would have had a few years ago. Instead of being quirky and unique it's become far more pedestrian.

So Armistice, then. Yes it's a worthy successor to the STDA, but no the new direction isn't to my liking. I'd like to think that the guys themselves are out there reading this from their homes in New Orleans cursing me and calling me a philistine for failing to appreciate the subtleties of their new musical direction, but the bottom line is that, to me at least, it just doesn't sound as enticing as their previous efforts, and some of the unexplainable Mute Math 'soul' (probably a fabrication of my pretentious mind) has been lost with the addition of the myriad of new instruments. For my money their best work so far is their old stuff (Reset EP and the STDA), but that said, I'm longing to hear what they can produce in the future. Let's hope there's a B-side release of Voice In The Silence, eh?
To summarise the album in a more focussed manor, I'll give a mini-review of each track.

The Nerve
After some of the later tracks, this sounds a little underpowered. The lyrics are very interesting, if rather moody and aggressive.
Backfire
An atonal mess, pulled together by an excellent chorus and top class vocal work by Paul. Definitely a single, although certainly not their best work and I don't think it will have mass appeal because it's a bit marmite.
Clipping
The kind of thing you listen to just before shooting yourself. The lyrics are desperate and the grungy intro synth sets a dark, gritty tone which is maintained throughout the whole song. The piano gives it an emotionally piercing edge and adds an almost rain-like quality. The vocal work towards the end (chiefly the 'hey's at about 3:35) is superb.
Spotlight
This has been out for quite a while and I'm sick of it now, but I liked it a lot when I first heard it. It's trying a bit too hard is my main complaint.
No Response
Builds up beautifully - probably the most atmospheric track on the album. You can hear the guitar echoing off into some distant street or alley. Paul's doubled up vocals don't really fit and make it sound slightly inconsistent but an aurally pleasing track overall.
Pins and Needles
A more relaxed tune, this. Until it gets to the point it seems a bit lost, but the lyrical content is interesting and its echoing, jazzy sound is rather memorable. At least until it gets to the string outtro. Urgh.
Goodbye
A much more mainstream track. There's nothing here that isn't straightforward and I'm not dead keen on the weird guitar hits that play periodically, but the vocals on this track stand out as some of the best on the album.
Odds
Wonderful drum track on this one. Everything here is quite simple and melodic - nothing atonal. The vocals here are excellent and the choice of instruments is refreshingly simple by comparison, and the ambient vocals here add a bit of soul into it.
Electrify
Urgh. Well it's a nice tune, but the lyrics are fairly bog standard and the whole thing fades into a frenzy of melodical and lyrical mediocrity towards the end.
Armistice
An almost Latin sounding jam which harks back to the 1970s with the jazzy brass and guitar work. Vocals and instrumental breaks here are superb and the minimal synthesizer and sampling work keeps it clean and gives the band a chance to show off their instrumentional talents a bit.
Lost Year
Mute Math do Coldplay. Personally, there's nothing I really like about this song.
Burden
This sounds more like three or four tracks melted messily into one, but it's a cool sort-of-end to the album. The section containing from 6:32 onwards is superb, mesmerising and uplifting, and the samplings of their earlier 'Earlylight' from the Spotlight EP are well used.
Architecture (US iTunes Bonus Track)
One of the best tracks 'on the album' for me. Possibly because it's closer to their previous work than any of the other tracks. An extremely infectious track that I love, even if it is a tad repetitive.
Clockwork (Japanese Version Bonus Track)
Where the hell is Voice In The Silence? This is good, but not as good as that. Clockwork also strikes me as being somewhat unfinished. The intro comes in far too suddenly and it ends too abruptly.
Valium (VIP Tour Bonus Track)
Valium has a thumping beat behind it, despite being a slow track. The vocal echoes are wonderful and it is generally an uplifting joy to listen to.
Armistice 2nd Line Version (VIP Tour Bonus Track)
A slightly stripped down version of the original with a slightly harder, more streetwise edge on it. I think I prefer the original.

Anyway, enough of that musical malarkey. Last week I attended the Ground Zero Airsoft Weekender for a second time. It's basically a camping trip where you get shot at when you wake up, and the number of wounds upon your person is directly proportionate to your success. The number of bleeding BB wounds on my neck is a testament to the fact that I did poorly, on the first day at least. By the end of the second day I had about ten kills under my belt and had managed to score one piece of intel for my team with a bit of quick sprinting and some balls.
Coming up is a 10000 word essay on my experiences, where each picture is worth 1000 words.
Right Click > View Image for slightly higher resolution, or alternatively, if I know you, email me and I'll mail you back the originals.

Relaxin' all cool and all shootin' some b-ball outside of school.


Our campsite, tents, my car, and a couple of oiks throwing a fucking volleyball at it.


The sun setting over the campsite, and Tim about to get hit in the face with a volleyball. Look closely.


Ieuan in the John. The rifle sat outside it is almost iconic. So are the portaloos, mind. Those things were fucking unbreathable after about a day.


Jewbu and Ieuan (far left, far right respectively) chilling on a hill. Feel the excitement!


Me taking a photo of Ieuan taking a photo of some noobs.


The dead zone. No, not the film. Various members of various teams taking five after getting shot.


John resting his tank barrel on the floor (in-joke).


The beautiful and fertile land of Groundzerostad.


Meanwhile, just to the left, Ieuan fails to smile for a picture while Jewbu and Carly don't even turn around.

After three days of sprinting, shooting and more sprinting I spent the next four on the sofa with a duvet over me watching TV, coughing up bits of lung into my cereal, but it was an immensely fun weekend out and the booze-up inbetween firefights was a great laugh.
A big 'hurro' to Jewbu, Tim, John, Ieuan and Carly who I went with. Hope you guys had as much fun as I did.

Coming 2052: another post!

Ground Zero, 13th January

Whelp, it's the 16th and I still haven't got around to regaling you all with tales of my latest airsoft skirmish. That's because sitting around on the two small tongue depressors with a piece of A4 paper stretched over them that I call my arse in front of a computer screen for 364 days of the year, and then venturing out into the wide world for six hours of excruciating physical exercise, apparently leaves you in a state unfit to move comfortably for a couple of days, which includes settling back down into one's natural habitat. My habitat, in this case, being a paint-stained black leather office chair which has an arse groove so perfect you could fill it with Plaster of Paris and sell the results to an anorexic supermodel to use as a mould for the next plastic surgery on her gluteus maximus.
Picture to the right: My 'My Lai' face.

If the following is to be understood, you will need to take in the list below (which is also general knowledge for future posts, so learn it like the words to a song because I'm not going to post it again):

• My local site is Ground Zero, Hampshire. See link on the right hand side of the page.
• There are two teams at Ground Zero, Delta (white tags) and Bravo (orange tags). Myself and my team (Delta 1337) always go Delta (obviously), mainly because Bravo are a bunch of unwashed halfwits who wouldn't take their hits if somebody was dangling their nan over a threshing machine. Up until recently, the marshalls haven't really cared about the cheating, at least until Howard had a word with a few of them and got some to go onto Delta team. At Ground Zero it isn't 'who won?', it's 'how badly did Delta loose?'.
  
• Howard is the owner of said site, who gives a long, boring speech at the beginning of every game. Those wishing not to offend him will refrain from falling asleep.
• Neil is the site's gun handyman, the gaps in whose knowledge about airsoft guns are comparable to the size of a Venezuelan transexual's penis.
• I own three guns, all of them made by Tokyo Marui, or 'TM', who are regarded by most airsofters as the standard on which all airsoft guns should be made. They have flawless internals and will almost never jam or do anything wierd such as strip their gears, which ICS and Classic Army (CA) guns have been known to in the past. The only downside to TM is that the majority of their guns are made from mostly plastic (with a few metal parts). While this may not be an issue to people who are there to actually play the game, realism junkies and sad bastards with too much money to spend prefer CA and ICS. If you actually want to pay an extra £40 (or £100+ for an aftermarket metal body) just to increase the weight and decrease the reliability of your weapon, you are a sad bastard indeed. Having said that, I am a man who prefers realism, but not when it's going to make your rifle sling start to cut through your neck after a few hours of playing.
• The guns I own are (at present): TM Steyr AUG SR (bricked), TM FR Ordnance MC51 + red dot sight + solid stock, TM XM16E1 (M16 Vietnam style) + CAW M203 grenade launcher, TM Glock 26 Advance, and a KSC Heckler & Koch USP .45.
• I only have a phone camera at the moment, so the quality will be awful on all of these pictures.
  

The weather forecast for the 13th in Ringwood was heavy rain all day. Rampage (crazy bastard with two 6-barrel revolving grenade launchers, amongst other scary guns) said on the forums that it wasn't going to rain, and "RampageWeather™ is rarely wrong!". By some miracle, he was right. The weather for the day was cloudy, with a little bit of wind, but a nice temperature (approx 9 degrees, which is good for airsoft).

After arriving and parking in the bog-like field (rain the previous night), myself and squad leader (kinda) Tim (who owns a 512fps L96 sniper, one of the same grenade launchers as Rampage and two chrome-plated Desert Eagles, the crazy sod) idled over to talk to Neil, who doubled as the pick-up point for Zero One orders. I had only bought a spare magazine for my new M16/M203 (having only one previously), but my friend Stuart (AKA Jewbu) had recently saved up to buy a shiny new TM M14, which he seemed to be muchos pleased with. Tim also received his sniper rifle back after some repair work, which consisted of the repair crew at Zero One putting some duct tape inside the buggered trigger mechanism and charging £45 for it, chuckling all the way. You could see where they had been giggling whilst writing the bill. Jewboy also brought along one of his friends, Scott, who I reluctantly lent my MC51 for the day. After some buggering around (during which Tim managed to send my M203 shell to its untimely death) we assembled for Howard's speech as usual and had a nice nap to make up for getting up at 7am. We were informed that nobody had actually volunteered beforehand to be Delta's captain, so Howard shouted for Rampage who assented, apparently oblivious or uncaring as to Delta's reputation as 'the unleadable team'.
Picture to the right: Jewbu, Tim and Scott from left to right, relaxing in the car park at lunch.

A long walk later and we arrived at our designated spawn point, Checkpoint Charlie, where rampage handed out pink sashes (sash holders do their 'dead time' on the spot without having to run to a spawn point to wait. Downside is if Bravo get hold of them they get points), one of which I took, and later lost in what can only be described as a move of unparalleled coma-inducing stupidity on my part. I won't elaborate.

Some confusion later we arrived at Stag Camp, where there was a timer to be switched over to Delta (timers are an objective, you switch it over to your team and hold the position against the enemy, then every half an hour a marshall comes to see who is currently in the base and gives points accordingly), as soon as we could find it. 23 and a half hours later we found the timer and switched it over to Delta, then dived into whichever trenches weren't knee-deep in water and prepared for the attack. 15 minutes and some head-scratching later, shots rang out across the valley over in Firebase Charlie (right next to Checkpoint Charlie, which is essentially just a guard tower). The clueless pillock who leads Bravo had given the wrong orders and they were attacking our base instead of the actual objective. More than half an hour later, and after receiving some points for the timer, Bravo decided attacking the objective might be a good idea, and lurched slowly into motion in what can only be described as a cluster fuck. Our squad, consisting only of 5 or 6 guys at this point, were attacked on all sides from Bravo. I managed to plug about 3 of them using my new baby before all my team mates were killed and I was the last man standing. I slammed my second and only remaining magazine into my M16 as some prick with a support gun sprayed most of the mud from the top of the bunker (which is just a hole in the ground) into my hair, and stood up, ready to unleash hell. Before I even spotted the two bastards shooting at me, some guy came through the bushes on the left-hand side and shouted 'BANG', pointing a Colt 1911 in my face. Not one to reject a bang kill and be shot at point blank in the face anyway, I called the hit and climbed out of the bunker just as no less than 15 Bravo swarmed into Stag, declaring it to be theirs. We'd already got the timer at this point and the objective had moved, so this was entirely pointless, but your typical Bravo has about 5 brain cells, and it simply cannot turn down the prospect of shooting somebody.

Other notable events of the day include four people (myself, Jewbu, Scott and one other guy who joined in on the fun) holding The Village and area surrounding for more than 30 minutes against an attack of 12 Bravos. I managed to get some bald twat with an armalite and a sniper hiding in a bush (although he didn't take his hits even after I threw a rock in his general direction shouting 'GRENADE!') until both myself and Jewbu were hit and the four of us decided to break for lunch. Just as we were leaving, a marshall came through the bushes with the timer we had been waiting for all this fricking time, followed closely by a squad of four drooling morons. We spotted another eight on the way out, including the poorly concealed sniper whom Jewbu used to zero his iron sights on. This was just before I took the picture on the right.
Picture to the right: The random guy who hooked up with us, Jewbu and Scott all posing for my phone camera on the way back from the village.

My last battle tale is one either praising the Tiger Stripe camo I was wearing, or showing how ridiculously stupid Bravo really are. Myself, Jewbu and Scott piled into a hollow bush just outside Stag camp late in the afternoon, after Delta had re-taken it, and chilled out for a bit before Bravo showed up. After some lengthy discussion about where to set up a defensive perimeter around the base, a Bravo popped through a hole in the front of the bush, preceeded by 15 or so BBs that slammed into Jewbu and Scott. The angry Bravo yelled at the pair, accusing them of not taking their hits (irony), until Jewbu declared that the Bravo was in fact a silly twat who apparently didn't hear them shout 'DELTA HIT' at the top of their lungs. I slowly aimed my rifle at the intruder who was on his way out of the bush and sprayed a few rounds into his arse before pulling a smug grin and giggling slightly. He apparently didn't even see me.

Me now being alone in this bush, most of Bravo team were attempting to attack stag from the direction we were supposed to be guarding. I felt a little claustrophobic as most of Bravo team slowly surrounded the bush on all sides, advancing towards the base behind me. I took a few pot shots at ones passing through gaps in the leaves, praying they wouldn't figure out where I was. Most notable of these was a guy who came into the same gap that the dispatcher of my comrades had. Not once, but twice I managed to bang kill him. The second time he brought along a friend who I was glad to accept as a human sacrifice. Another one was a suicidal halfwit who ran past the entrance to the bush and tried to jump behind some sandbags about 5 meters away from me. Before he even hit the ground after the jump, I managed to put about 3 rounds into his neck and head, assisted by the team actually in the base more than 20 meters away. He walked away holding his neck exclaiming 'Christ, it's always the long range ones that hurt the most'. I chuckled a little, knowing that yet another Bravo had failed to spot me in this bush.
I was finally knocked off my killing spree by three friendly Deltas who, seeing we were pushing Bravo back a little, piled into the bush with me. Before long they were merrily popping rounds into advancing Bravos. I was glad of the assistance, until I suddenly realised that they were merely attracting attention to the bush at the exact moment a line of shiny white BBs collided painfully with my legs and groin from the right flank.

I should also mention that I saved Jewbu's life (probably) at one point during the day. We were running after Rampage (who should compete in the fucking Olympics) who was leading us around the back of a Bravo-infested path, when we came across a small pond. No big deal. One, two three, four and five of us jumped over. I turned back just in time to see the last of us, Jewbu, try, and fail to jump over the small hole and fell in up to his knees. He later told me that it was incredibly pretty sticky mud, so I guess he was lucky I was there to pull him out.

Also, apart from being impossible to keep up with, Rampage was an exemplary captain. After this incident with the bog, we encountered stiff Bravo resistance in the back woods. Jewbu was saying that Rampage had gone on ahead and deserted us, but he was wrong. After being pinned down for about 10 minutes by a small squad of Bravos, we heard the 'fweeeeeee' of two electric motors, followed closely by 'CONTACT LEFT!' and 'HIT BRAVO' several times. Rampage jumped from over a log holding two VZ61 Skorpions, ginger beard flashing in the light, and said:
"Right, I've got your bad guys, now move up!"
I have never laughed so much in all my life, the man is a complete legend. Shortly after this, we followed him to a large path and said that we were going to have to run past a Bravo only spawn point. We all gulped a little, realising that they were probably going to follow us. After some deliberation, we all broke into a sprint, heading straight towards the T-junction on which the spawn point was situated. "Morning lads!" I said merrily, saluting as I ran towards the village where our aforementioned predicament took place. There was a clamour of about 15 Bravos attempting to give a smart ass answer at the same time, but I didn't catch any of them.

So there you have it, the 13th in a nutshell. As always, I end up feeling like a battered wife at the end of the day, but I always go back for more. The camaraderie and friendliness of all the staff and players (including the Bravos, they're not really that bad) at Ground Zero is fantastic, not to mention what a socking good day out it is. I'm not trying to sound like an advertisement, but that tends to happen when I talk about something awesome.

This post wasn't very funny, was it? Tough shit, I wasn't trying to be. Hang around until whenever I feel like it and I'll post a rant which will keep your feeble minds amused.