MY OCTOPUS MIND - HERE MY RAWR

 



 

According to one variation of the fascinating (if widely disputed) theory of panspermia, the octopus arrived on Earth in egg form on meteors during the Cambrian Explosion around 540 million years ago. More orthodox scientific opinion holds evolutionary theory best explains the genetic uniqueness and adaptive cleverness, the perceived alien qualities of this creature. Bristol-based post-rock outfit My Octopus Mind seem to imply in their name a kinship with the titular organism that goes beyond abstract ecological awareness of distant co-evolutionary molecular similarities. This inter-species identification is perhaps simply rooted in a shared will to live and conquer adversity with the concerted application of intelligence.

‘Here My Rawr’, the quartet’s new single, continues the philosophical mission statement of their last single ‘No Way Outta Here Alive’: life’s opposing drives of alienation and determination encompassed in a creative dialectic. Lyrical themes of homesickness and romantic/chemical misadventure as well as the tune’s musical roots developed out of singer Liam O’Connell’s nine-year sojourn in Australia. This eight-minute epic is the product of a long gestation period and a culminative statement of MOM’s progressive musical development.

The track’s opening bowed bass solo slides around the stereo field like the band’s namesake cephalopod negotiating a rock pool (possibly Antipodean, possibly exoplanetary). The elegant mixing is paralleled in the song’s dynamic shifts which represent an advancement in subtlety over ‘No Way Outta Here Alive’. Flavours of the Eastern modalities of mainstream rock figures like Led Zeppelin or Jeff Buckley as well as psych-prog avatars The Mars Volta emerge in the rockier passages, but it’s apparent they also look to alternative musical models capable of conjuring more unearthly power like the Esbjörn Svensson Trio or Silver Mt. Zion. Stuttering post-hardcore cadences out of Nomeansno or math rockers Tera Melos or no wavers Blonde Redhead pepper the track’s progress with moments of tension and release. There’s an electronic noise passage redolent of Radiohead’s disruptive experimental episodes.

My Octopus Mind continue to demonstrate they’re one of Britain’s most challenging psych-rock bands. They adapt to their creative environment by drawing sustenance from multiple sources, continually pushing forward to add their own unique mark on the evolving tapestry. If they have interplanetary octopus friends, maybe they’re just as eclectic.

 


 

Text: (C) Copyright by Jon Kromka 2022

Photo: (C) Copyright by Sam Woollcot 


Now available on Halfmeltedbrain Records through Bandcamp:

https://myoctopusmind.bandcamp.com/track/here-my-rawr

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