Label: Rust and Machine Records
Jittery, up-tempo post punk is the name of the game on this new release from Melbourne, Australia band Masses. Horde Mentality is packed full of skittering rhythms, propulsive basslines and subtly melodic guitar-work, with a slight trashy garage rock vibe and a melancholic dark wave sheen emphasized by the gloomy, reverb-dripping production provided by the almighty Phil Calvert of The Birthday Party.
Masses are a band of contrasts, with male and female singers splitting the vocal duties between ghostly, Curtis-ian baritone barks and ethereal, celestial whisperings, and the occasional shimmering, sparkling synth line shining through the cold post punk mechanics like a ray of sunlight in an overcast industrial landscape.
With all their robotic fervour and ashen aesthetics, Masses’ grasp of melody and ability to produce subtle moments of gentle beauty is like a hopeful, redemptive flicker of colour in a drab black and white world, a singular thought breaking out of a horde mentality.
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