Going into this album I thought I knew what to expect from Mundi. This psychedelic dance project wowed me with their live performance at the Wellington Botanical Gardens earlier this year, but I couldn’t help but feel like I’d heard all of the tricks they had hiding up their sleeves.
How wrong I was.
Now hear me out, this isn’t to say that this record does not have a good consistent flow to it, because that would be very untruthful of me. Every song has a great sense of rhythm and groove to it that at least kept my toe tapping through its 57-minute duration.
Speaking of its rhythm, I have to mention the great percussion sections and just the overall tightness of the band, two of my favourites being Pygmies From The Congo and Geosmin.
This isn’t to say the album doesn’t have its moody moments, such as the song circles, of which I’m not entirely sure it’s meaning, but the raw vocal performance and dark keyboard tones was an eerie but needed breather from the action of this record. Darker tones can be heard again in the Noir-esque brass section of Ancient meeting place, and the extremely chaotic The Pale Blue Dot.
After hearing the title track for the first time, it really gave me a true sense of how great the production quality was on this thing, there’s so much going on at once, but every part was distinguishable and gave the song the frantic touch I believe it was striving for.
Overall, I’m pleased to see how well Mundi were able to capture their awesome live sound for my own listening pleasure wherever I am. I cannot rate this one high enough.
