Since nobody else appears willing or ready to do it, I guess I'm going to have to drag myself out of my cave and tell you all how great the new Moggs record is. It used to be we had Polvo and Pitchblende when we wanted some tense, intricate math rock, and that was pretty great. Now we don't, and although we manage to make do, there's something to be said for bands who can make a lot out of very little. Moggs, a duo who play guitar and drums, can make you believe that even a total vacuum holds infinite potential.

The first thing you notice about The White Belt Is Not Enough, Moggs' long-in-production debut album, is that it sounds great. I discovered the band by hearing them live, and so I know the songs are good enough to overcome technical difficulties and just plain crappy sound (any San Franciscan who has endured a show at the Edinburgh Castle knows exactly what I mean). But man, this is an immaculate record. The guitars sound cleaner than life, and the drums, while being a bit boomy for my tastes, are flawlessly mixed. The band's press release makes a big deal out of the fact that they mastered their record at Abbey Road, but I think only Beatles nerds are likely to know what that means anymore. Likewise, the band's repeated mentions that they kept everything analog until the last possible step are likely to resonate more with other musicians than the general listening public. What's important is that they took their time and paid a lot of attention to what they were doing, and it's readily apparent when you listen to the results.

(On a side note, Dave Fridmann should hear this record, because Moggs gracefully nail the sound I think he was trying to achieve for Low and Sleater-Kinney on those bands' most recent records, without the excess graaawr that occasionally obscured the songs. Stripped down shouldn't mean amateurish, and when everything is overdriven, it just sounds like crap. I still enjoy both records, but every time the vocals and drums start getting all crackly, it sets my teeth on edge. I'm still not exactly sure how he expected that to sound good, or powerful, or raw, or whatever.)

It takes a little longer for the complexity of the songwriting to sink in. Several of the songs, including my current favorite “Aisles”, are miniature suites, covering a lot of terrain in just a few minutes. Guitar lines cover and cross each other, melodies shift between major and minor at will, and the complexity of the drumming runs the risk of being obscured by Miss Minor's powerful playing. It's tempting to compare Moggs to more familiar bands, like Shellac or Sonic Youth, but Moggs lack Shellac's smartmouthed pushiness, and they are far more concise and organized than Sonic Youth have ever even tried to be. We're clearly in Polvo territory here, but for those who knew Polvo at their best, this is high praise. Polvo managed to produce a considerable amount of beauty out of a very simple set of ingredients, and Moggs confidently pull off the same trick.

For some reason, probably due to not wanting to overburden the already complicated music, a lot of the best math rock bands have tended to be primarily instrumental, but Moggs are songwriters, and they take turns singing, with Sir Plus sounding a little like Alan Sparhawk of Low and Miss Minor approaching a post-punk chanted monotone somewhat akin to Siouxsie's from the early days of the Banshees. As for what the songs are about, I couldn't tell you yet, having not really absorbed them all.

Despite all my talk of similarities, the band really aren't beholden to any particular band, style, or era. One of the nice things about having a sound as minimal as theirs is that it's difficult to hear it as anything other than what it is – guitar, drums, and vocals – and they've been tweaking these songs for years, and obviously own them from the ground up. In a musical era of reflexive irony, where influences can be so obvious that they don't even reach the level of pastiche or homage (which implies plagiarism or outright theft), there's something deeply gratifying about encountering a band who just do their own thing. If you're in the mood for something powerful and raw, well-executed without much in the way of bells and whistles, give Moggs a try.

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I like them. They remind me of Heavy Vegetable.

Posted by: tomas on September 26, 2005 05:04 PM

f**k you for going away so long. you wouldn't believe how much music i've learned about and got into (no, *dove* into) because of you. meshuggah is playing at the pound this saturday (10/29). just a thought, a 10-ton thought.

Posted by: cosmo on October 26, 2005 10:52 PM

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