Everything All The Time: Mojo Fury


Mojo Fury is: Michael Mormecha (guitar/vocals), James Lyttle (guitar/vocals/keys), Ciaran McGreevy (bass) and Gerry Morgan (drums), and they are from Lisburn, just outside of Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

The title of this post is a lyric fragment from Pill Pigeon is an Orange Wheel, song number six on Visiting Hours of a Travelling Circus, their first record, released earlier this year by Graphite Records. It is also an accurate summation of their overall sound.

There are sharp syncopated synths layered over precise quasi-industrial drums, and the remaining space is filled with heavy, slightly fuzzy guitars and Michael Mormecha’s voice. (If there are any fans of Pretty Hate Machine-era Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine in the audience, this band is for you.)

There are two breaks from the whirlwind: the first one is We Should Just Run Away, which is as close to a pop love song as they get, which  is not all that close, really. The (somewhat) softer side of Mojo Fury still contains thudding industrial echoes.

The second one is Electric Sea, which really is the aural equivalent of walking into the sea. It starts with a simple almost-acoustic guitar and cymbals that skitter through like foamy wavelets on a shell-strewn shore, and then layers of sound build gradually, until suddenly you’re out past the breakers and it’s time to play jump or dive with the whitecaps, or, rather, a sudden wall of guitar. In this case the correct answer is dive: just sit quietly for a moment and wrap yourself in the last minute or so of the song.

As an examples/enticements to explore further, here they are with (WARNING: CONTAINS CLOSE-UPS OF BUGS!) The Mann:

 

Mojo Fury - The Mann

 

and (BUGLESS!) We Should Just Run Away:

 

Mojo Fury - We Should Just Run Away