Dust Mothers – As Much As You Want
Dust Mothers are an eclectic group of musicians from Denton, Texas. Differentiating from the canon of surfer psychedelic rock by focusing on being loud, Dust Mothers’ debut is notable for its fantastic use of stereo space and unfiltered raw energy. It’s a shame not many people will be able to hear the band live during these trying times, yet As Much As You Want provides an ample listening experience in the meantime, effortlessly capturing the rawness and energy.
SPLIT! Has an admirable amount of energy and joyfully opens the album with style. The title track, As Much As You Want, rides its instrumental jams with style and elegance. Each track bleeds into each other flawlessly, making for an overall extremely coherent and satisfactory listen. July is a well-paced and explosive finale. When the album relies more on pop-conventions, and furthermore its vocals, it’s not quite as strong; such as during the standard rock-fare of firewood. Thankfully, even during these lower points, the instrumentation is always varied and the dynamics remarkable.
While progressive psychedelic surf rock has been overdone in the past decade, the creative song writing is worth noting. Moreover, while many tropes are very predictable, they still kick ass. Each track is still incredibly accessible, but never in a bland way. This is partly to do with Dust Mother’s focus on noise and creative song writing. For example, while Blue Moon may start off as a relatively standard psychedelic surfer rock song, it develops into a rather brilliant psychedelic prog-rock suit (and furthermore into Sunbather). Moments like these are imaginative and striking.
Whereas a band like King Gizzard sound too clean and baron, Dust Mothers embrace their rawness to deliver something quite charming. As Much As You Want is a solid debut; it’s only fault is it’s lack of innovation. The band certainly make up for it with their energy and song-writing, yet time will tell how their skill will manifest. One could easily incorporate some zany instrumentation, eclectic jazz or stifling synths; whatever more the band can do to inject personality will go a long way. Regardless of which direction Dust Mothers go in, they already have a fan.
Really Good
Listen to it here:
Dust Mothers – As Much As You Want
