Muta-scuM - How I Spent My Summer Apocalypse

Industrial project Muta-scuM is back with his brand new EP “How I Spent My Summer Apocalypse” via Furnace Records. After the release of his previous single 'Life In The Dying Place', I found that Muta-scuM had evolved in a sense; the backing of Furnace Records with Anatoly Grinberg behind the mastering of it led Muta-scuM to new heights. The lessons learned on that single have transferred some to his latest EP, "How I Spent My Summer Apocalypse", though some repetition from the sound bank holds it back. 

‘The Moment And The Switch’ sounds exactly like what I would expect from Muta-scuM. Glitchy breakbeats, soaring synths that don’t know which way to go in the background, and generally a dark atmosphere with deep dives into bass. What’s different this time around is that Muta-scuM’s music sounds further refined and produce with each layer able to be heard. This is most impressive towards the end when all the sounds already toiled with form together in a complete amalgamation.  Noise, glitch, and breakbeat form the general structure of ‘Other Viruses Are Available’. It’s also fairly minimal with generally one hit of electronic samples playing at a time. I feel as if it could have been a bit more layered in the beginning of the song, much as we started to see in the latter half of the song. 

The layers I wanted in the previous track are found on ‘We Eat Our Own’. More noisey breakbeat paired with synthetic backings. Though it is as this point in the EP where I start to feel of repetition coming from the sound bank. Most of my opinions that I have spewed out so far would only be repeated with ‘Here We Go Again’ and ‘Truth 2.0’. However, that repetition changes on ‘The Upside Down Kingdom’. It’s almost 8bit in a sense with some lazer-like sounds that would be perfectly suited on a NES or SNES cartridge. While it still retains a Muta-scuM feel, there’s also playful experimentation with brighter synths that make this song truly unique. 

If Muta-scuM can continue to experiment like he did with ‘The Upside Down Kingdom’ then I think the project will flourish. Some of the sounds get repetitious as I remarked on some of his past releases, but the more he’s able to play with them the better. He’s got his production down, now it’s time to get extremely experimental as to not make the EP sound too stiff and stuck. Six-and-a-half out of ten.