The Order of Things
Mouth Music
2005: Skitteesh skit200501
This is a good example of the kind of album that forces me to take a year or two to digest it and reassess my reactions before even beginning to write about it.
Above all I was just so delighted to have a new Mouth Music album to enjoy. Martin Swan’s muse may at last be in solid contact with him, but his sense of need to record anything and release it is entirely too iffy for my needs. Everything he’s allowed us to hear is a magical treat, in my opinion, and that the previous Mouth Music album was perversely an instrumental one didn’t discourage me.
It’s easy to get lost in a swim through this album. Aside from its dark patch (the oddly sinister “Are You Experienced”), most of these tracks are individually contained sonic journeys. To have Michaela Rowan’s voice in play again is such a superb aspect that it distracts me from the material being sung.
Comments © 2007 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.