Review Mumm-Ra
These Things Move In Threes

1. Year: 2007
2. Style: INDIE
3. Rating:

The word Mumm-Ra originates from the name of a cartoon hero

The process of bands' popularization became so efficient that almost every more or less worthwhile band has its chance to bite some fame nowadays. And this is good admit that. Not only because hopes of numerous garage groups receive systematical charging with real examples but also because now and then labels dig up really original bands in their search of new rock prodigies. In fact, it was always this way, simply formerly a probability to wake up famous was much lower. Everything aforementioned concerns young British band Mumm-Ra in a full measure. It must be explained at once that the band's name is not a bondless set of sounds but a name of a cartoon villain from the animated television series Thundercats, which was popular in 80's. The band rose to public attention for the first time when they performed with the NME Awards Indie Rock Tour together with The Automatic, The View and The Horrors in the early moths of 2007. After that the band released a number of singles and now they appeared again with their debut album These Things Move In Threes.

These Things Move In Threes has a number of undeniable advantages

So what are these particular Mumm-Ra? The question is not that easy as it may seem. Actually, there is no other stylistic term suitable for their music than indie rock, but the band looks really worthy against the entire background of debut albums released in this and actually in last year. First of all, the most striking thing here is the quality of sound. While most of the young indie rockers stick to a modern tendency and record dirty guitars, weirdly sounding drums and frequently sound pretty raw, Mumm-Ra tried to achieve a real result. And this lets you distinguish moods, different characters of their songs and material's originality overall. Secondly, the band experiences no problems with vocals. The voice of James New stays in the boarders of indie standards but he doesn't try to copy anybody else at that, his individual peculiarities are quite perceptible. Mostly he sings in a high register, calmly and without any harshness and this also helps the band to add some moody feel and specific atmosphere to their songs. You may check out The Sick Deal – this is a very exemplifying song, it includes many advantages of Mumm-Ra's music. The album offers all the previously released singles: Out Of The Question, What Would Steve Do?, She’s Got You High and Starlight. A track called Song B also deserves attention, quite an interesting song indeed; it stands out from the context of the entire album, not at the expense of its sound but rather of a different songwriting approach. It is really good that many songs on the album sound different from the official singles, not only because it makes These Things Move In Threes pretty divers but because they are supremely well written.

Mumm-Ra play in the boarders of brit pop and indie rock

So, one may fearlessly say that the most significant features of Mumm-Ra are good vocals, a frequent usage of multi layered parties, general quality of the sound and a competent work with keyboards, which creates a solid sonic basis. As for material's originality, the band has already passed a part of the way that leads them to a unique manner of their own. They really try not to look like somebody else and it is pretty hard to name any other band that could be associative with Mumm-Ra. However it is early to speak about uniqueness so far, the band rarely leaves the boarders of brit pop and indie rock of recent years. Overall Mumm-Ra sound nice and harmless, there is no aggression or recklessness here, quite on the contrary, many songs sound tranquil and even intelligent, even despite intensive tempo and expressive rock presentation. Such a combination may seem weird but this is exactly what Mumm-Ra do. In a word, These Things Move In Threes turned out to be a pleasant and beautifully crafted album. And if you feel lack of inde rock's emotional charm than Mumm-Ra will gladly share it with you.