Mongoloid Village - Self Titled

Reviewed by Dave

http://www.myspace.com/mongoloidvillage

Shittown, USA, yeah, that sums up my misspent youth pretty damn well. I had the pleasure of growing up with jacked-up trucks, tweakers, and rusted-out vehicles slowly overwhelming the neighborhood. Fun involved avoiding chew spittle like dog poo on the sidewalks and joy was connected to closed-minded, small-town, christian gossip. Just looking at the decrepit looking piece of property on the sleeve to the Mongoloid Village CD, I would assume that guys with nicknames such as Cooter and Fester probably have stories pretty similar to my own.

The self titled debut from Mongoloid Village is a heavy mix of dark stoner rock and well thought out post-rock riffage along the lines of Red Sparrows and Pelican. The vocals kinda remind me of Roger Daultry of the Who and definitely lean toward seventies rock staples such as Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath. There are some really interesting progressive passages of interplay between the instruments on the “Choking Game,” “Pickled Punk,” and “El Ron.” The band uses dynamics very effectively, mixing moments of sublime introspective ambiance with crashing power chords and thunderous drum fills rolling across the auditory landscape.

Mongoloid Village is one band in a growing number of heavier groups that prefer to build up an underlying tension in the use of starts, stops, and creative chord voicings in their songs instead of blast beats, overly distorted power chords, and ridiculously loud, dark production values. I think anyone who has been listening to aggressive rock music for any length of time and still maintains some form of critical thinking skills should really appreciate this.

So what is there to be said negatively about Mongoloid Village’s debut EP? For all the dynamics and atmosphere I hear in the music, the production values come off sounding a little dull and flat. I think a couple minor compression and equalization tweaks would have this recording sound. I really like the guitar playing on this EP, and the guys start to wander toward great progressive musical territory. I would have just liked to have heard a bit more technical embellishment and flash here and there. There is a fine line there and I’m just splitting hairs at this point.

Overall, I think the Mongoloid Village EP is a great addition to the Portland, Oregon rock catalog. These guys ride a fine line between creativity and accessibility. I’ll lump these guys into the rare category, with Vanishing Kids, as a technically interesting band that uses melody very well a.k.a. music that can be listened to with non-music snob friends without one wanting to stab their own eyes out with ice picks or hearing “what’s this boring ass jazz stuff?” It's also really cool to hear a band playing stuff along the lines of post rock but with more of a focus on song writing than atmosphere and experimentation.

Using Jimmy’s time honored scale of 1 to 10 minutes in reference to the auto erotic pleasure produced by this album I’ll give 8.5 minutes.