MOTHER GOOSE Village (Seriously Groovy)
Helsinki trio Mother Goose cook up a brooding, slow-moving opening track on this three song single. "Village" sounds like a particularly tense and restrained Mogwai, three minutes spent waiting for the inevitable crashing release that never arrives, with the cracks filled in by some ominous, bluff vocals. "Mozart" is a more predictable, less impressive, noisy rant, but "Born Kind, Christmas Time" waltzes lopsidedly into the distance, happily without an iota of the seasonal jollity that might be inferred from its title.
MOTHER GOOSE Junior Magic (Seriously Groovy)
Following their recent "Village" single with their first Seriously Groovy long player "Junior Magic", it seems unlikely that Finnish trio Mother Goose will be replicating the success of other Scandinavian bands like The Hives and The Soundtrack Of Our Lives over here. Which isn't intended as a slight, just an observation that their music is far too strange to garner the same kind of mass acceptance. Their songs are a scary, spiderwebbed tussle of guitar, bass, drums and voice, garnished with strange, fractured storylines that are cinematic in their scope if ultimately frustrating in their non-linear narratives.
"Modest Dreamer" is an itchy, discordant work song, a "Fight Club"-style call to arms with a whistled ending that reminds me strongly of the closing seconds of The Electric Light Orchestra's "Battle Of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644)" - Mother Goose don't seem like the kind of band to be heavily influenced by Roy Wood! That single, "Village", is even eerier here, its slow melody gradually swept away by overlapping waves of feedback . Concentrate on the plot and its snowy tale of car journeys to locate buried treasure brings to mind the brothers Coen's "Fargo". Something potentially even more sinister seems to be operating at the dark epicentre of "No Tits" and "Twisted By The Pool", with its insistent recurring motif "The orphans are liars", whilst the high-speed thrash of "Girly Magazine" is self-explanatory. Ten tracks in, "Top Tune Mate!" is an unexpected, late in the day tumble of bright lights and radio-friendly melody. In Mother Goose's skewed universe this is what Eurovision winners sound like. Proceedings take another lurch with the alternative lifestyle nursery rhyme "Snow Dome".
"Junior Magic" might not be a classic album, but it's sinister, mysterious and different, and Mother Goose use rock's traditional building blocks to create a noise quite unlike that produced by any other band. Odd, but highly individual.