Mother Of Six

Mother Of Six - 'Mother Of Six EP'
Mother of Six play a style of music invented by an old Catalan sea dog who, after witnessing their performance, staggered over and screamed aRt pUnK Art PUnK!! into their faces before collapsing into the drumkit. It’s easy to see what reeled him in, although I’d question his genre spotting ability as his definition of art punk appears to be heavily phased, bass heavy Sabbath riffs with epic, Cornell style vocals. Reminiscent in places of the groove and repetition popularized by the mighty Loop, but also factoring in some ambient, doom laden industrial clanking, this is ultra heavy without ever becoming alienating and is well worth getting your grubby mitts on.(SB)
- themusicfix.co.uk

Mother of Six are a storm that has been gathering over Wrexham for the last 18 months. All the black clouds, ominous rumblings and spectacular flashes are about to reach some kind of apotheosis with the release of their eponymous debut EP on Monday 30 November.
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They've been in session on my show, I've played demo recordings a number of times and made an ill-fated trip to see them at The Tivoli in Buckley. But they've been a difficult band to love. Their music is so dense and opaque it's like trying to stare at the world through a piece of obsidian. At least, that was my impression before I heard this EP.
Lead track, Penelope, begins unexpectedly, fizzing valves do battle with a Glitter Band beat, sucking the original Dr Who theme forwards through a black hole. Big fuzzy, phased riffs like rutting mammoths herd in the excellent vocal and cryptic lyric.
We get Homer's Odyssey blasted at us through two millennia on mountainous waves of six-string noise like the ire of Poseidon. In particular, the words are inspired by the fate of the titular Penelope, deserted for twenty years when her husband Odysseus goes to fight in the Trojan War.
Hmmm. Alarm bells are ringing, aren't they? Myth has no place in music. Anyone who has cringed at Robert Plant singing, "T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor" in Ramble On knows that.
But here, somehow, it works. It's not a song about monsters, for a start, but about the aftermath of war and not knowing whether your love has survived, whether you should move on. Mother of Six's singer succeeds in evoking Penelope's loneliness and despair. It's quite an achievement. And his singing is one of the EP's many great strengths. It's never histrionic, recalling Josh Homme and In Utero-era Cobain. It's the Yang to the noise's Ying.
The best hard rock is about the phallic thrust of the guitars and the testosterone pummelling of the drums allied to a vulnerability that I was about to describe as 'feminine' until I realised there's nothing vulnerable about the women in my life. Well, they're certainly no more vulnerable than I am. The vulnerability here, the human connection, comes from the voice, the musicality of the passing notes on the bass, the twinkling harmonics that are there, almost hidden, deep within the mix.
We're still talking about the first song, here. But it is deserving of such attention. Must. Resist. Temptation. To. Make. Bold. Proclamation.
It's the finest rock recording I can recall coming out of North Wales.
Bah! Father forgive me, I have no self-control.
'Rock' is an abused term, I think. In fact, the press release describes some incident while Mother of Six were touring Catalonia when, in the immediate aftermath of a gig, a fisherman stands in the middle of the dancefloor screaming "Art Punk! Art Punk!", and this is regaled presumably to highlight the fact that there is more to their music than 'just' heavy rock.
It's true, the final third of Ahab is like Kyuss rampaging along with Neu! And that's not a lightly tossed comparison. It's an intriguing juxtaposition and not one that I've heard before. Shores starts to oscillate and ooze like a hellish hallucinogen, or Hawkwind, if you prefer. And Norourljos, the final track, certainly has more in common with Faust and Ectogram, say, than the behemoths of Heavy Rock.
But the bread and butter of this EP, and there is no mistaking or escaping the fact, is heavy rock. When it's done this well, with this much eloquence, this much attention to detail, this much desire to ally unexpected rhythms and evocative sounds to the traditional armoury, it sounds as urgent, intriguing and fresh as any self-consciously mangled 'new' form of music.
This new EP, along with Klaus Kinski's recently released single, sets a new standard for guitar music in North Wales. Accept no limitations.
The ((((((Mother of Six)))))) EP will be available from Monday 30 November.
Myspace: http://myspace.com/motherofsix
ADAM WALTON - BBC RADIO WALES

Mother of Six-“S/T” EP and “Castel” Single Promo CD
Lateral Arc Records
www.myspace.com/motherofsix

Man, I can ALWAYS count on the UK for good music; both traditional and experimental. Ok, I know this is a UK based magazine, yet sadly this loyal, computer commando is broadcasting from the other side of the pond, so I must sit back and wax in both adoration and envy for what’s going on over the way of our steady handed readers. I’m envious only for the fact that I’ll never get to see so many of these great bands live, until I finally challenge my fear of flying and make my pilgrimage to the great music capital of the world! In the meantime I’m just going to have to keep the discs spinning. After that personal state of the union address, it’s time to tackle two releases from Welsh lads Mother of Six (a four-piece) who fondly bring back memories of my falling in love with Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Seattle, the stoner rock genre and Sub Pop some years back. This band has a pristine sound; totally shimmering stuff that unloads as many heavy grooves as it does pop oriented, shimmering moments. They’ve got a lot of great elements to their sound, with each player establishing an important niche within the music’s framework; there’s an emphasis on heavy riffs that swing delicately but rock hard nonetheless, compelling vocals that are the missing link between Chris Cornell’s soaring bravado and Josh Homme’s plaintive croon during the days when QOTSA actually meant something to me, subtle psychedelic effects that wash over the stringed instruments, a driving yet danceable beat and an all around excellent sense of directing a song down the path it needs to go. The EP is worth dedicated attention from start to finish. Opener, “Penelope” has a thick, hard rockin’ ace up its sleeve in the verses; leaning heavily towards the grungy, groovy riffs of early Seattle. Yet, there’s more than meets the eye here. An uplifting chorus pulls back on the reigns and shows psychedelically affected restraint, applying light pedal usage to the guitars as they deliver starkly melodic lines with the vocals catching a subtle hook during the chorus. Using a painstakingly precise riff akin to My Bloody Valentine to bridge the song back into its heavy thrust, was a risky gamble, but one that pays off in the end. Embracing their inner Sabbath shitkicker; “Ahab” balances slothful pacing with an upbeat, Kyussian boogie. The shifts in this piece are entrancing as grime laden grooves open up into desert baked swing and psychedelic grandeur; making it a no brainer for the band to lock down on another pretty chorus movement. “Shores”, the last of the straightforward tracks on the EP, could have been an unreleased cut from the S/T QOTSA masterpiece if you ask me. It’s dance-y, light handed stoner fare that embraces the wonder of its catchy, plain roving riffs and smooth vocals; doing a complete 180 turn later on when a bluesy, psychedelic trudge drags the track to its show stealing finale. Ending on a high note, the EP capitalizes on the psychedelic ending of “Shores” delivering a drone coup de grace in the form of ambient instrumental “Nordurljos”. If you dug the EP, then you’ll dig the single “Castell”; the tune’s cut from the same cloth of head nodding, riff jams and fuzzy stoner drool as the majority of the EP, and is certainly worth checking out if you cruise by the band’s Myspace page. If you thought good rock n’ roll died with Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and the rest of the Seattle legends; then consider Mother of Six your salvation from a faraway land! The band is heavy, spaced out and hugely melodic, and if American rock radio had the balls to put some stuff like this on the air, then yours truly would have a lot more faith in the current state of popular music. Until then, I’ll proudly spin these discs on my own personal airwaves, and raise a proud middle finger to the tin eared masses! You should join me in doing the same, by grabbing onto the fantastic swagger of Mother of Six before you’re officially late to the party.


Jason Snyder
- Bad Acid Magazine

Bringing a pop element to hard rock is tricky business. Too much and you lose any grittiness ? and really, who apart from teenage girls wants to listen to ?safe? rock? Too little and you're missing the point altogether. On three of the four songs on their self-titled EP, the UK's Mother of Six strike a pleasing enough balance. ?Penelope? and ?Shores? both have a peppy Queens of the Stone Age vibe ? more foot tappin' than head bangin' ? yet don't seem muted in execution. The songs may swing, but they swing big. Sandwiched between those two is ?Ahab,? and it hits a little harder and gives the brick-thick guitar equal standing with the soaring vocals (I'd describe them as ?Bono-esque? but most of the time, them's fightin' words). Not surprisingly, I like that one best of all. What I could've done without was closing track ?Norourljos,? which was a bunch of ambient soundscape doofusry. My advice is to get the first three tracks and skip the last one.

URL: http://www.myspace.com/motherofsix
- Stonerrock.com