Mawpit – Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
The genre moniker and stylised form of sound known as Grunge is a funny one. In this here 2020 Mawpit tells us of ‘Natures Curse’ using this very word and all its inherent fuzz via a background elsewhere but also two-thirds adjacent. I hear you. What a colossal load of waffle that was but hear me out; again. There is indeed some worthwhile profundity. Recently, you may have seen a band by the name of Squidge featured on Ear Nutrition. However, if not, then you can catch up – Here – and rendevous below when your curiosity has been adequately satiated with part of Mawpit’s ancestry.
Ah, you have arrived! Excellent! You’ll have to forgive the apparent and writhing insanity as this is the first piece I’ve written in two weeks. Mental destabilisation aside; back to Mawpit. The band’s weighed melodic Alt. Rock-meets-Grunge hybrid is finished by soulful vocals and is one indebted to both guitarist Jordan Mallinson and drummer Aled Nelmes’ musical inspirations and their sponge-like absorption being raised on the sonically evergreen Punk tree and all that it has fostered and/or sprouted.
Notably, Mawpit’s format is its main idiosyncrasy. Do you remember Grunge being labelled as “funny”? Well, the band owe the genre increasingly but not wholly. The band’s single guitar makes use of a split signal to compensate for the interesting lack of bass-strings. This effectively keeps an arguable third of the assumed Grunge’ fuzz in check mired in a brawl with a brooding and melodic ebb-to-enveloping atmosphere and repeat. This brooding yet gently inviting tone that is constantly on the fringe of a mood swing is intentionally thus and beckons you.
The band’s melodic tendencies alternate from atmospherical to a middling layer with Cait Johansen intrinsic vocals standing as the final piece. Mawpit take on the persona of the Earth in response to the Australian bush fires and on the backdrop of the greater global climate crisis. To say that the track is emotive and emphatically barebones would be an understatement. This openness is never too overt nor worthy of the term “preachey”. Mawpit ebb on one hand and lumber on the other. The band’s intensity is balanced and in check via its reserved structure.
‘Nature’s Curse’ is an evocative track that nears excellence but never quite breaks that barrier. The track could well continue it’s settled and lucid dream-Grunge and still undoubtedly garner more attention but at least for me, there would be something lacking. However, at the 1:55 mark, such a period-bound criticism naturally unwinds. The band’s Punk-adjacent ancestry cuts through the melodic-Grunge hybrid in a stark realisation matching to warning this personified Earth is giving. Mallinson’s guitar then moves away from the ebbing melodies briefly in favour of a rounded Alternative Rock-line, that in following on and in tandem with the jagged-Punk chug, teases the band’s future movements.
‘I gave too much, now you’re spineless and bitter.
Still you want more than I can give you.
So make your bed, you’re overdue.
Your greed will be the death of you,
And you’ll be the death of me’
Mawpit tells us of ‘Nature’s Curse’ via Cardiff there is no ambiguity set around your taking note.
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