The first problem of reviewing Eadem Mutata Resurgo, the new EP from Mother of Six, was finding enough synonyms. Describing a record like this leaves you struggling for more ways to say COLOSSAL. The second problem was finding the opportunity, and indeed the speakers, to play this record as loudly as it deserves to be. From the first shuddering note of ‘Children of Mars’ to the dying breath of ‘A Fo Ben Bid Bont’, this EP is a full-scale alien invasion on the senses.
‘Children of Mars’ is the first track, released earlier in the year with a brilliant video. This is music to launch a Saturn rocket to. Just as it begins to fade and you peep out from the fallout shelter, it comes back with a vengeance. Second track, the Welsh language ‘Oes’, with 12-bar blues of doom moments, is a refreshing reminder of the quality and variety of music currently coming out of our small country at the moment, particularly from Wrexham.
‘Charlemagne’ is a bit of a departure from the sound we’d expect from Mother of Six, but it is still undeniably them. As the title of the EP suggests, Eadem Mutata Resurgo: although changed, I shall arise the same. This track brings an grungy, acoustic edge to the EP, which proves to be the deep breath before the plunge, clearing out the path for the 9-minute drop-tuned monster that is ‘A Fo Ben Bid Bont’.
If ‘Children of Mars’ is music to launch Saturn V to, then this is the accompaniment to watch the last moments of Earth in slow motion. With its apocalyptic build up, fuzzy last-cry-of-humanity vocals and UFO guitars spinning off to find another species to destroy, this track takes no prisoners.
Its brilliant artwork, Welsh twist on a criminally underrated genre, and undeniably planet-eating scale, makes this a reassuring release. Together with Gallops’ new album, this EP is proof that boarded-up, postindustrial Wrexham is fully capable of providing the soundtrack to the coming intergalactic war, our new overlords hopefully sparing their lives and employing them to write film score for their propaganda.
by Deian Timms
Mother Of Six play The Commercial on Christmas Eve. Entry is free.
