Escape/Revolution by The Mothers Anger
LABEL: Aunt Nest Music / Dionysus Records

Seattle duo The Mothers Anger is all about co-existing dualities with this year’s Escape/Revolution: the band’s music is a blend of abrasive punk with the energy and style of West Asian music. The group combines literary concepts with music. Guitarist and vocalist David Rapaport plays a converted guitar that also functions as a bass. Most obviously, they’re two guys and their Escape/Revolution is even split into two ’chapters,’ as implied by the title. Intentional or not, what this all amounts to is some of the most exciting music to come out of the Seattle music scene in a long while.

The Mothers Anger sound is difficult to pinpoint and is most likely the result of innovation out of necessity. Rapaport’s vocals meander between punk, Spanish folk and doom wails in between intense melodies that straddle all of those aforementioned styles while also touching on indie roots. This is what would happen if you mixed the idea behind Gogol Bordello with the sound of Fugazi, The Melvins and Minor Threat. It’s gale-force intensity focused into a perfectly listenable collection of dramatic aural set-pieces for the plot that the band has devised for Escape/Revolution, an obviously political sentiment that is echoed by its literary counterpart, a book written by Rapaport to be published later in the year (and the sets of two just keep coming...). The story and music are crafted carefully together and neither one becomes too overwhelming over the other. Each song flows into the next, which furthers the effect of the conceptual nature of the album, but tends to wear the ear down after 55 minutes of aural pummeling and frenetic attacks of instrumentation on all fronts.

Escape/Revolution is a carefully constructed and savagely executed piece of music, but falls short in one major area. My first exposure to The Mothers Anger was live, and the overwhelming power demonstrated in the venue is severely lacking on tape. Rapaport’s vocals are too high, his "buitar" lacks oomf, and the drums sound too weak for the amount of Hell drummer Joseph Braley was really giving his skins that wonderful night in Fremont. While it has always been a monumental challenge for engineers to accurately capture the sound of a band right in front of you through a mixing desk, a band of The Mothers Angers’ ferocity just needs a few more overloaded mixer channels, a bit more dirt, and a lot more punch-to-the-gut wall-of-sound goodness.

Regardless, Escape/Revolution stands up well in the canon of politically edged punk music and as one of the highlights for the Seattle music community specifically. Pick up the album directly from the band, and be sure to catch the show live to soak up the full experience.


REVIEWED BY NEIL LEVENS
NEIL’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Screwed” • “Bill Hicks” • “Fin”