Mold Omen - Decomponents

 

Released: February 28

While Mold Omen’s newest album lines up with most of their previous work, Decomponents is a particularly interesting entry in the discography. At the very beginning, I hear all of the kinds of noisy recordings I’m familiar with including harsh beeping and field recorded clicks and clatters. These odd sounds continue for a bit and then something weird happens. Suddenly a very jazzy/bluesy guitar with a whole lotta wah pedal comes in and start playing out some rather soulful licks as the same bits of noisiness  continue unabated. These juxtaposition here is absolutely jarring but also highly enjoyable. It seemed to come from nowhere and subverted any expectation I had for the track. To say the least, it forcefully grabbed my attention. 

The rest of the album kind of follows suit in terms of juxtaposing some unexpected guitar parts with the noisy and unusual soundscapes but each track is essentially a bit different take on the idea. If we skip forward a little to “Greensboro Supply,” we get some 60s/70s rock vibes over a bit more stable rhythm, although not really anything you would think of a real drums on anything that could be neatly classified as a drum set. But the guitar riffs is a nice and fuzzy retro affair that sounds fantastically authentic.

At its core, Decomponents is a noise rock album of sorts. But it feels like a lot more than that as it pusshes the bounds of an already boundary pushing genre. Some of the tracks here stick into that particular genre  heavily like the almost grindcore-inspired “Overlooking Infinity” that is noise to the core but still has that penchant for some weird guitar. “Datasets” makes similar moves as well but at a slower pace and even heavier distortion. It’s all very scattershot in a way but there is that overarching theme of taking various guitar based musical themes and twisting them into unusual shapes and forms. It’s thoroughly enjoyable if not a bit bewildering.