Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
When this popped into the inbox it caught my eye initially as they hail from Marrickville, Sydney, the place where a long lost buddy escaped to from Norwich a few years back. Then I gave it a listen and found it to be definitely to my liking. Mope City play super downbeat indie rock as befits their name. It fizzes, it fuzzes, and it is taut. Opener “Rocket Surgery” has got your 90s slowcore thing going on, but with the eerie tension of 90s emo. So I guess that means it’s like Slint. That’s about as upbeat as this release gets, although it should be pointed out that “Rocket Surgery” is from an upcoming LP and the rest are bonus tracks from the recording session. Indeed, the remaining three songs are positively wonky, featuring creepy monotone vocals over rumbling guitar. The sparse notes at the end of “Karl Marks His Name with an X” are verrrrrry Indian Summer. There is this weird Indian Summer vibe to a few bits of this to be honest. I think it’s likely a coincidence, but you know when in those Repercussion record inserts they wrote about getting very stoned and passing out listening to the run out groove of Slint records, yeah, this sounds like that too.