Mekons is one of the longest running British punk bands who have dabbled in countless influences since their inception in 1977. They are about as likely to produce folk, country, cabaret, reggae or world music just as they are driving, guitar-fueled punk rock. And even though these days, the collective has shaped their sound into a more art fueled entity, there’s no doubt Mekons is full of plenty of fiery spirit and raw energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLawrence Of California\u201d gets off to cryptic start with an ambient distorted opening that then bursts into gang vocals and a feisty atmosphere of bright horns, crashing percussion and uproarious rock. \u201cHara 1883\u201d follows and moves into calmer, darker areas with moody keys and a firm post-punk influence. <\/p>\n
Though there are just nine tunes present, each one is a gem and Mekons covers much territory. \u201cInto The Sun\/The Galaxy Explodes\u201d alone brings in orchestral ideas and prog rock ideas as female vocals populate the busy tune, and \u201cHow Many Stars?\u201d uses saxophones, an intimate setting, and Tom Greenhalgh’s unassuming vocals to punctuate the fragility.<\/p>\n
The back half of the record offers the heavily stringed \u201cIn The Desert,\u201d which sounds like the musical version of a mirage \u2013 hazy, desolate, and with dreamy vocals \u2013 and the following song is actually called \u201cMirage,\u201d recruiting charged guitars, forceful vocals, and a buzzing template that’s more on par with their punk rock beginnings. <\/p>\n
Deep tracks like \u201cWeimer Vending Machine\/Priest?\u201d illustrate even more variety with dreamy classic rock meets experimental punk, while \u201cAndromeda\u201d is a purely breezy, swing country fun. \u201cAfter The Rain\u201d closes out the affair with elegant folk sounds, the kind that aging punks play that’s gritty, sprawling and animated.<\/p>\n
Perhaps a bit less political then we might expect from Mekons, Deserted <\/i>is nothing if not adventurous, and full of hallucinatory landscapes, and instrumentation that shifts from sparse to hectic. It’s daring, bold, and sometime mysterious; in short, it’s everything we love about Mekons that twangs, roars, and simmers with subtle rage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10350],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-45594","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mekons","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45594"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}