Mouses are arguably going to be one of the next big new bands. Their oddly ferocious sound coming from a small two-piece outfit has already gained plaudits from critics and music fans alike. Mouses come from a North-East music scene that is maturing into what could be the next B-Town. But for us, they are the stand-out act. Playing what could be likened to those early White Stripes records on speed, Mouses aren’t a band that hold back, nor are they a band that seem to be slowing down. Their eponymous debut album hits the shelves back in September.
Perhaps the most charming feature of turbulent the noise-makers The Mouses is their tongue-in-cheek namesake. Despite a swift transition from meeker venues to the mighty BBC Introducing stage at this year’s Reading/Leeds festival, the group continue to present a more than formidable force in the local music scene: as this, their electrifying debut, boldly confirms.
Girl – a gloriously noisy ode to youthful self-deprecation – snaps the album into animation with twists of melodic fuzz, showcasing the oddly satisfying synchronicity of the two musicians. Progressing jaggedly into the shoegazing Bloodlust and aggressively canorous Hollywood, Bargett shines as a vocalist, possessing all the excitable mania of Feargal Sharkey after a few tinnies. Parallel to this sits (in the loosest form of the word) hurricane personified Nathan Duff, whose frenzied percussive bravado on Green transforms the relatively reserved drummer into a Moon-like god.
Unsurprisingly, anything penned by the unstoppable pair boasts its own unmistakable reverberations of hard-wearing garage, whilst each lyric spat or spun lends the album an edge of ponderous wit that you’d be hard-pushed to find anywhere else. The droll subject matter of Psycho is one such example of lyrical finery as, deep beneath the murk of a genial lo-fi din, some of the best Billingham-born lines since Paul Smith’s By The Monument are found.
Overall, this is a debut can be described as nothing less than wholly exhilarating: deep, warm, and barely pausing for breath, Mouses have cemented their well-earned stance within every single alternative playlist from now until the end of time.
Did anyone expect anything less?
The official music video for the second single taken from Mouses‘ upcoming début album. Released July 29th on Sister 9 Recordings.
The Fat Angel Sings 