“As an artist in this time of significant upheaval, society seemingly having reached the end of its current iteration, it’s of critical importance to absorb and interpret this process of dissolution - and of the transformation that hopefully follows it” says Aaron Turner, guitarist and vocalist for the expressionistic metal ensemble SUMAC. “While I don’t believe we’re on the brink of collective destruction precisely now, this is clearly a pivotal stage in the story of humankind - and there is something that feels right about this music at this exact and very uncertain moment.” In this case, the music in discussion is May You Be Held, the latest album for the American-Canadian trio.
Mixture of 60's garage rock, surf, porn funk and manic psychedelia, the instrumental madness of The Mutants is a lost soundtrack for Russ Meyer's, Tarantino's and Aki Kaurismäki's films. Impossible to categorize, we call it "afro-garage-mambo".
The Mutants was founded in 1998 by Weijjo a.k.a Abnormal, who wanted to form an instrumental band after getting tired of difficult singers. Members were picked partly from his previous punk band "Isebel's Pain" and from locations that you don´t want to know. The sound of The Mutants has been pretty weird from the first beginning, only to get seriously sicker since. After the first chaotic gigs with the usual rock instrumentation + organ, it needed to sound bigger…
For decades, the only way to enjoy Johnny Cash live in your home was on his two arguably finest albums, both recorded at penitentiaries; At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. Since they are established classics, the argument can be made there really wasn’t a need for more. That has changed as labels dig ever deeper to mine material from legends like Cash from their vaults. It has resulted in no less than two recent concert recordings from Cash; Man in Black:Live in Denmark 1971 released in early December last year and now this show, recorded in Czechoslovakia circa 1978. Add these to 2003’s A Concert Behind Prison Walls, Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden (a 1969 date finally seeing the light of day in 2002), and 2011’s 53 track Bootleg Vol lll:Live Around the World. And that’s just for starters. Considering how much he performed, it’s likely more are on the way.