Mythic Sunship

Ouroboros

Written by: BV on 20/10/2016 16:44:43

My previous experiences with Mythic Sunship are rather limited. I remember seeing them in a drunken stupor one time when I was supposed to be DJ’ing. I can’t recall how it really turned out but I remember headbanging quite insistently to some heavy-duty riffing and some cosmic, super-trippy sounds. Regardless of my past experiences with the band, I have been offered a second chance for an impression via their recent release on the El Paraiso label, “Ouroboros”. I’m not quite sure what to call the music emanating from my speakers other than cosmic instrumental music. The band themselves seem quite fond of calling it Anaconda-rock, so there’s that.

Either way, what we are treated to via album-opener “Ophidian Rising” is a heavy-duty onslaught of repetitive fuzz-riffing trading off with some severely groovy bass lines. Underline all this with some genuinely ferocious drumming and you’ll have a fairly decent idea of where we are headed on this heady, collective musical journey. There’s plenty of inspiration from acts like Earthless and label-mates Causa Sui and Papir. Yet, somehow Mythic Sunship fall out of the same category with where they’re going with the music. All three of the aforementioned like-minded bands have a tendency to build up around certain thematic elements and melodies which then become the foundation upon which the collective of musicians will build up a track. With Mythic Sunship this doesn’t entirely seem to be the case. Rather, it seems more improvised and matter-of-fact. Like a collective of musicians making it up on the go, embracing whatever challenges and hard-earned payoff they’ll get from it.

This is particularly evident on the third and final (yes, final) track on the album. “Leviathan”, as it is called, fully lives up to its name with a guitar-created roar - signifying the sheer volume this kind of music needs to be played at to fully embrace it. With a lengthy, feedback-fueled intro lasting nearly three minutes before some maddening drumming finally kicks things into overdrive, you’d be excused for thinking that “Leviathan” was off to a slow start. And yes, it does take quite a while to really get going – but with a runtime of just over twenty minutes, I’m not sure what else you could really expect. Around the eleven-minute mark things start to peak for the track, eventually culminating in a chaotic, swirling soundscape of fuzz, feedback, echoes, heavy grooves and much, much more. It is both a strength and a massive weakness that “Leviathan” is such a lengthy track. The intense build-up really does seem worth the wait when the track finally culminates – but it has very little value for me, personally, on repeated listens as you then get a very specific idea about when the track will peak – making the initial feeling of being on the edge of your seat feel diminished until you eventually zone out completely from the track once you’ve heard it more than five times.

Overall I’d say Mythic Sunship have done a fine job with “Ouroboros”. It is not quite there yet, in terms of the ultimate consistency showcased by their labelmates in Papir and Causa Sui. But they’ll get there – I have complete confidence in that.

7

Download: Ophidian Rising, Leviathan
For The Fans Of: Earthless, Papir, Causa Sui
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 13.05.2016
El Paraiso Records


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