Mothman - Summoner

'Summoner' is the debut release from Mothman and it's a very impressive first outing for this artist. Mixing influences from rap, hip-hop, dubstep, IDM, darkwave and ambient, it's an impressive blend of a variety of influences while still managing to retain a stamp of originality in its execution. The production is sleek and it is a very well-mixed and mastered release.

The first track "Madeit" definitely has a hip-hop vibe to it, but it's quite dark, subverting the influence into dark, dubby territory. There's a pitched-down rap vocal at the start, and later on there is a brief glimpse of e-piano and church-like gospel singing before plunging back into the darkness of the slow moving, distorted bass line (and it doesn't sound anywhere near as gothy as I made it just sound there, by the way).

I enjoyed this track and it reminded me of some darker IDM artists like Otto Von Schirach who play around with hip-hop beats and attitude but in an interesting, intelligent and almost ironic manner.

"Witch Shit" is further exploration into this dark, apocalyptic sounding hip-hop. Siren-like female cries echo out over the thumping bass alongside a pitched-down rap which is notable for the amount of expletives in it. I lost track of the amount of fucks, motherfuckers and shits I heard. The lyrical content of typical gangsta posturing is a bit confusing given the mood of the track - imagine someone rapping in the middle of a witchcraft ritual. It's jarring, but it still manages to work.

Track three, "htohT" (which is Thoth backwards, the Ibis-headed Egyptian god of magic and writing) starts out much more like dubstep than hip-hop and it's atmospheric as fuck until a silky smooth, gansta-style saw comes in stabbing away like a motherfucking knife in the gut, alongside the kick and bass synth wavering in and out of focus with a filter cutoff effect.

By track four, "Drake's Drum", sampled spoken word plays out against an atmospheric background for two minutes before the beat and synths kick in again, but by this point it's starting to feel like familiar territory again as it's a little bit too similar to the tracks that have come before it. The kick and clap samples are similar to past tracks and there isn't much more about this track that makes it stand out from the others.

Luckily, the final track, "Summoner" kicks it up a notch and makes sure the album goes out on a high. It starts out like pure gansta hip hop here with the trademark dark-tinged aesthetic that Mothman has carved out for himself by this point, but then he drops a surprise transition on us. Bursting forth, tribal drumming with tamborine and warrior cries dance against the dark background until it builds into a crescendo. It then drops into a deep, dark abyss of bassy droning, only for the the tribal drums and vocals to explode back into focus with waves of white noise carrying you along like a shamanistic drug trip. This is a tribal summoning for sure, evoking dark, Cthonic entities from deep below the earth.


The album cover art is really quite eye catching and invokes a kind of Lovecraft-meets-Arabia aesthetic; there is a woman covering her face with a scarf and she has an esoteric symbol tattooed on her forehead while she stands against a dark, smoky desert-coloured background. It's a high quality piece of digital art and it really suits the music perfectly.

This is definitely a very intriguing album with a unique sound and while most of the time it is very down-tempo, that doesn't detract from how hard hitting it sounds. While the heavily hip-hop-influenced sound may not appeal to all, this is much more of a dark IDM album than it is hip-hop or rap.

My only criticisms are that at five tracks long, it's a bit too short to really be considered a full-length album. Some moments feel a bit too similar or repetitive to prior moments in the album, but there's enough surprises here to keep me interested in future releases from Mothman.

I suggest checking out "Witch Shit" and "Summoner" as the highlights.
I give this album a solid 7 out of 10. Aug 13 2012