It must be Friday. It's great to hear great new records like this on a Friday. I've always been rather prone to Mattiel since being directed towards them and their self-titled album in 2017 by James Endeacott indie music entrepeneur and all round nice guy. Atlanta based and distinctly Southern sounding, each of their two albums have been bracing and exciting. Latest Georgia Gothic more than keeps up the momentum they've built up as well as adding something fresh to the pot.
This is Pop music of an indie stripe. If only mainstream pop was as stirring and exciting as this.It twangs but doesn't annoy in the way that Jack White for one certainly can. It's not mannered. In fact it's authentic and incredibly appealing. It has no great pretension to being Art, it's much more intent on having fun whilst maintaining its eccentricity and otherness.
Other bands from Georgia, Black Lips, B- 52's, Outkast, R.E.M, Deerhunter. and Pylon come to mind of terms of spirit though not necessarily in terms of the way the actual music sounds.But most of these bands don't actually sound like each other either. It's their quirky eccentricity and individuality that they have in common. The band reference it themselves of an interview on their Heavenly Record site.
Crafted and achieved in a woodland cabin in their home state by core band members Atina Mattiel Brown and Jona Swilley it has an earthy rootsiness about it, clearly inspired at least partially by the environment it was crafted in. It's also incredibly eclectic, drawing on Garage Punk, R & B, Soul, Hip Hop, Rock and Roll. It makes you want to move. It swings.
It's great to hear music that is not in thrall to one particular generic musical style or obviously sounds like anything other than itself. This is already one of my favourite Pop records of the year so far. My sister and brother in law are going to see them play in London soon and I'm deeply envious.
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