Muta-scuM - Life in The Dying Place

After releasing their latest album "Idle Worship" on their own, Muta-scuM is back with their brand new EP "Life in The Dying Place". Under the belt of Furnace Records, Muta-scuM is tackling the religious extermination and persecution that is occurring against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang area of China. While I do not have the full story on that issue, you can find out more information on it at the following link. Nonetheless, what I do have to say about Muta-scuM's latest single is largely positive. 



Gritty and dirty synth noise hurl themselves in the foreground of the single before a steady electro-industrial beat makes itself known. Playing over various samples from live broadcasts and other such videos covering the Uyghur crisis, there's both attention to this humanitarian issue as well as catchy industrial beats. I also feel as if Muta-scuM has improved over his previous releases; I no longer feel as if the song is muffled or lo-fi. There are clean industrial beats throughout. I do feel as if the song can be slightly repetitive in the instrumental chorus sections, but it's not a huge issue considering the song only runs for three-minutes and forty-four seconds. 

I had a hard time picking apart the differences from the three different versions but I believe this is how they are sequenced. The original, title track is an unedited and uncensored version containing samples from broadcasts and other such videos; the 'apolitical' version is the same, but drowns out the samples by either cutting them out entirely or by distorting the voice so much its speech is unrecognizable; and the last version is simply an instrumental cutting out any of the voices on the EP. There's no need to sit through all three versions of the song, however; I think the original version commits to Muta-scuM's vision well enough without censoring itself. 

Nonetheless, whatever version of 'Life in The Dying Place' you choose to listen to, it's a pretty fun time. If Muta-scuM keeps up in this direction of wholesome industrial beats, then I think their next album is going to be wonderful. Seven out of ten! 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Nov 01 2021