Freakish fantastical folk fables flourish, flower, and flow, fed with the full force of the coarsing torrent of musicalality underneath.
Hear from a window, opened by the ledge
Folkish songs sung, with a more modern edge.
All styles of speeches, ideas brightly lit.
Come observe the man with his own mother wit.
A poetic introduction to Mötherwitz and the concept at the heart of the music.
The EP begins with the carnival cavalcade of ‘Perished By Poseidon‘, a track that tickles with the fun frolic and flirtatious kiss of a lapping wave, before unleashing the torrential wrath and raw pure primal power to drag the listener into its immersive depth.
The first track acts as an intimate invitation into the intricate instrumentation and raucous rebellious reinvention at the heart of the Mötherwitz sound.
It establishes a respect and reverence for the structure and songwriting tropes of classical folk, but with the same breath plucks every string from the bow loose, to retune it anew.
The 4 track EP dives dive deep into the murky waters of old myth and legend to reinvigorate them with modern meaning, message, and music.
‘Perished By Poseidon‘ is a perfect example of the cleverly poetic pen as it is both an ode to the fury and frenzy of Poseidon’s famously fickle nature, but also with the right lens a warning of the fragile kingdom of man when faced with environmental disaster.
Ignore the warning signs at your peril mortals, Poseidon is pissed!
Following as it does, the playful prickle of ‘A Mano, A Mano‘ quickly gives birth to the rallying call to action and war cry of it’s chorus.
In context it paints the conflict of climate justice and positions a reluctant hero to bear arms out of necessity rather than bloodlust.
The weight of his weaponry is swung with impressive force, strong enough to cleave the very structure of song itself in two. From the cataclysmic crack the band summon the hauntingly psychedelic prog rock spirit that has been lurking in the shadow of their sound, and allow it a hypnotic centre stage performance.
The echoing vocals hoot, holler, and howl, shaking forth a shamanic soul formed in the stuttering dissonant dirge of drums and staccato of strings.
The wicked weave of this tapestry of tales finds the frayed fabric of the last track folded with finesse into the chord of the next. The EP is a curated collection so intrinsically intwertwined that each track resonates with the buzzing brilliance of the divine hymnal hum of the followed frequency.
‘Hercules, Son Of The Diety!‘ hits hard with the paralysis and sundered sanity of the sane mind in an insane reality. Instead of wallowing in despair, disillusionment, doom, and depression, it instead depicts a dashing drawn dream of Herculean strength to rise up.
This was the song that summoned us to submerse fully in the EP as a whole. The experimental, expansive, and explosive soundscape is so layered with creative fire and masterful musicianship that it pulses with the crimson red passion that places it as a piece of an even more epic whole.
That in no way detracts from the scope and subtle beauty of the song in isolation. The harmonic vocal bounce on lines like “defeat eats you after you’re made mince meat“, and the mesmeric beastial bass of the songs anthemic middle are unforgettably unique and utterly entrancing.
The EP finds it’s finale in ‘Moira‘ a bewitching and beautiful spell that ensorcels with a more classical folk sound and fabled warning to not become too lost in myth and mysticism.
This haunting ode calls a climax to our story that is self aware enough to make concrete of the beating heart of the art.
It dances with dizzying delight in the kaleidoscopic abstraction, but keeps one foot firmly in the real world, even as the psychedelic trip plunges head first into the sonic rabbit hole.
‘The Hymns Of Hellas‘ is hedonistic bliss, an audial adventure into a creative realm untapped and heretofore unknown. The vivid imagery, tantalising texture, captivating colours, and psychedelic promise paint a picture of the freak folk future to come.
