A blast of Prog, this Thursday night with Mouth, recorded at the Freak Valley Festival on July 28, 2024 by the perennial West German Radio.
MOUTH were formed in Cologne in 2000 as a trio, comprised of Christian Koller (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Jan Wendeler (bass, bass synth) and Nick Mavridis (drums, backing vocals, keyboards).
The band’s style is a blend of ‘golden era’ progressive rock – with influential names such are YES, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, SOFT MACHINE, HATFIELD & THE NORTH; as well as classic rock/hard rock and prog related names old and new: LED ZEPPELIN, THE WHO, DAVID BOWIE, T.REX and FISH.
Indeed, this is often cited as a mixture of retro prog, kraut rock, hard rock, psych and glam rock – all together it fuses into a unique spleen, often underlined with dystopian themes.
In 2007 they were offered to record an album, and their debut ‘Rhizome’, released for Bluenoise label, saw the light of the day two years later. Nearly at the same time Nick Mavridis left the band and was substituted by Thomas Ahlers until Mavridis re-entered the crew in 2010.
Jan Wendler left in 2012 and Gerald Kirsch joined as the new bass player since 2013. During the next years the band recorded a lot of songs, with the result of the albums ‘Vortex’ (2016) and ‘Floating’ (2018), both highly acclaimed productions showing way more kraut and psychedelic rock attitude.
After the death of Gerald Kirsch (2018) the band went on a short hiatus, but could already announce Thomas Johnen as a new member in March 2019. The live comeback then appeared at the Krach Am Bach Festival. Containing new and previously unreleased material a further EP was planned for late Summer 2019.
On their 2009 debut album, the band played a catchy “kind of sharpened and streamlined progressive rock with hard rock clang and glam rock attitude”, stylistically located in the mid- 1970s .
On the second album, the stylistic range was reduced to include glam and hard rock, with “spacey-psychedelic sounds” taking center stage. A reviewer from Musikexpress said that the band’s second album sometimes reminded them of “early Deep Purple or even Yes ,” but that Mouth had “developed their own dialect in the prog rock language.” In the review of Intro , the style is described as “progressive rock with a strong psychedelic influence.”
For the third recording, the running time of the individual tracks was reduced and the proportion of “poppy US West Coast psychedelia” was increased. One reviewer described the mix of “instrumental, Krautrock-inspired jams on the one hand, and very groove- and vocal-oriented songs on the other” as reminiscent of ” Motorpsycho , only with a stronger 60s influence.”
The fourth album “Getaway” is again characterized by “Hammond and Mellotron sounds.” “The Cologne band combines psychedelic rock of the early 70s with Krautrock, Prog and Noise.”
If you aren’t already familiar by all means, dive in.
Who says Prog is dead?
