Spectreview: Mush – 3D Routine

-OLIVE-

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“Cause and effect, indifferent nature
Pause for effect and hold your breath
But that’s just acting”

Mush do fast, punk-ish, art-ish, politically-oriented rock music that sounds like if you took a band like Pavement and ran it over the corner of a table to straighten it. That’s perhaps as much as you need to describe the Leeds band’s sound, which remains largely consistent across the twelve tracks of their debut album, 3D Routine. Thankfully that sound is intriguing enough to warrant repeat listenings, especially during its most spacious moments, like the spoken-word jam “Fruits of the Happening” and the varying tempos of “Island Mentality”. There are definitely some songs here that feel a little too similar when paired (like the equally strutting “Existential Dread” and “Hey Gammon Head” or the comparative chaos of opener “Revising My Fee” and “Gig Economy”), but that homogeneity is ultimately counterbalanced by exciting live-wire guitar (in the vein of Joey Santiago) and some occasional outré moments, along with a fresh dedication to epic-length tracks like the surprise hit of closer “Alternative Facts”. On a surface level these tracks are qualified bops, perfect for slotting into punk DJ sets and radio playlists alike.

Delivering most lyrics in a speak-sing that resembles an overstretched rubber band, frontman Dan Hyndman takes several liberties on vowel pronunciation and syllable stress that more often than not end up jamming the transmission wires. It’s perhaps the only point of contention across the record, if only because they so precariously straddle the line between effective social commentary and performative inscrutability. All’s fine with an accompanying lyric sheet, but without it it’s hard to know exactly what Hyndman’s saying on tracks like “Eat The Etiquette” or the brilliantly spindly title track. One the one hand, it’s very classically punk to keep that stuff at arm’s length with your audience, and Hyndman seems to be doing that here, setting his vocals up as a three-dimensional painting that requires your ears be aligned to the right angle. On the other, there’s a lot that get lost in translation because of that affectation, and itwhich somewhat nullifies the power of his words. It could potentially be a mixing issue – perhaps his vocals needed to be louder in the mix or more centered – but even were his words largely comprehensible, Hyndman often goes for classic straightforwardness a la Gang of Four instead of wit and satire (a la similarly oriented contemporaries) which, in 2020, feels more a relic of the punk of yore than an accurate reflection of the times he aims to capture. Hyndman does do a lot with that specific delivery across the record, babbling incoherently on “Coronation Chicken” and straining his voice to shreds on “No Signal In The Paddock”. In moments where you can clearly perceive his lyrics, as on “Fruits of the Happening”, they do indeed strike profundity. On the whole, it’s the one arguably egregious demerit in an otherwise very solid collection of angular punk.

Recommended for heads bobbing and shaking.

[Edit: Originally this article stated the band was from London. This band is from Leeds. They would rather not be associated with London.]