Beat Revolution. Muck and The Mires

Muck and The Mires is a band that can be found on this blog for several years now. Always it is a question whether the band should be taken seriously or seen as a pastiche playing nice to things that have come and gone by now for over 55 years. With Beat Revolution it is exactly the same. The band plays into rock songs from 1965-1969 and incorporates familiar sounds and riffs from the era into its originals. But like The Kik's best songs here in The Netherlands, Muck and The Mires add a lot to a familiar genre.

For one, the quality of the songs on Beat Revolution is simply so good. So, it may be more in the costumes the band tends to wear, this time pirate costumes, that ideas of a pastiche come to mind. This distracts from the music Muck and The Mires presents. From the title song onwards, the beat pedal is kicked in hard. This album rocks alright. Blending garage rock, beat and a little punk rock, Beat Revolution is one tough album. Subtlety has been shoved aside. On its previous albums the pop element in beat was laid on thicker. Not on the band's seventh album.

Sure, there are backing vocals that provide a pop feel under Muck's well worn in voice. It's not the kind of pop girls loved coming from The Beatles before the boys got really attracted from 1966 onwards. This is more like the early The Kinks, The Who and even a little The Monkees where the adorning notes in a chord's inner variations are concerned. In the U.S.A. that would be what we can hear on the famous 'Nuggets' box set from loads of more or less obscure bands and an occasional better known one.

Photo: Mari Tamura

By playing Beat Revolution more often, its songs will get the same sort of familiarity 'Nuggets' has for me. The album is of a kind that deserves this level of attention. Pointed songs, with fiery guitar solos, a sleazy little organ in between it all and a rhythm section that is so tight.

Summing up, I tend to go with the title of The Jam's last charting song over here, 'Beat Surrender', to describe the album in two words. 

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Beat Revolution here:

https://muckandthemires.bandcamp.com/album/beat-revolution