Brooklyn duo Mouthus are usually grouped alongside noise artists, despite being a guitar/drums duo. That’s because their music, while often abrasive, has its own internal logic that is difficult to understand without seeing them live. It’s hard to grasp that what sounds like 15 airplanes landing at once on top of an elevated platform as the J-train rumbles by is just generated by two people. However, on their new album Divisionals (on Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth’s Ecstatic Peace! label), the proceedings are dialed down a notch. Guitarist Brian Sullivan and drummer Nate Nelson, possibly employing some additional instruments, create a mysterious set of cyclic drones, which interlock and mesh within each other, much as the strands of DNA within our cells.
This article appears in May 5, 2009.