They keep coming. Awesome “new” bands from Australia that is. This year I have reviewed albums from Numidia, The Black Heart Death Club and Apollo80 on Metalfan.nl and this platform. Mote is another great Australian find. They’re from Melbourne and released their debut album Samalas this year.
Samalas contains seven tracks. The first five are instrumental. The last two are bonus tracks that have vocals. The band was founded only in 2016, but when listening to Samalas you can hear that we are dealing with experienced musicians. They play a kind of psychedelic rock that remind me of Naxatras. They have two guitarists which gives them a lot of space to play and jam. The first song Awesome Wells reminds me of The Velvet Underground. In this track and Jolo the guitars and rhythm section flow very naturally. The compositions are long, but not too long, so Mote avoids unnecessary repetitiveness.
In Requiem For All the bands slows down and sets a beautiful atmosphere. The guitar parts and overall feel of the song remind me of Black Sabbath’s short instrumental Fluff. Adventure Call is another beautiful psychedelic gem where the wah wah guitar meanders along great with some beautiful sounding organ parts. The title track lasts fifteen minutes and shows that Mote can really nail a great long jam without being redundant. As I said the last two songs – Magnetic Space and Hollow – contain vocals. They sound like they were recorded in a different session as supposed to the first six. The tracks have a little more alternative rock feel to them and remind me a little of Farflung.
Samalas is a really inviting psychedelic sounding record. You can hear that these guys are experienced and know how to play and write a song. The compositions flow very naturally and that makes you want to keep listening. Check out their music on Bandcamp. Their LP is sold out at the time, but hopefully they will do a repress soon enough.
Links:
Orange Maze 