Chicago’s jakbeat standard bearers Melvin Oliphant, Beau Wanzer and Jason Letkiewicz hash out killer permutations of proto-house, EBM heft, and darkwave grind under the Mutant Beat Dance aegis.
The 10 rough-hewn tracks of ’No Comfort for Control’ follow in the vein of MDM’s eponymous debut LP in 2018, and a haul of 12”s since 2009, with a mean as fuck display of spark-spitting synths and toiling drum machines harnessed to a mutant groove and uncompromising, tape-worn aesthetic. They’re all built to charge the atmosphere and antics of knowing darkrooms and redlit basements from the Chi to Manny and beyond, laying down the sleaze with a trowel as they take in kerb-crawling industrial thru knackered death rock styles in their 6-legged stride.
With the influence of Chicago’s Wax Trax! as much as Trax in mind, MDM deliver dirty heat in each round between the 16th note arp fangs of ‘Tote Kammer’ and the buckled no wave swag of ‘White Vapour Funk Dubb’, always reserving the right to switch sharp left into the livewire stepper ‘Spy vs Spy’ and just as likely to slap it down into squirming punkish grub of ‘Prayer 4 Heaven’, with ‘Drug Psychedelik’ standing out for its sustained acid jakbeat attack and the likes of ‘Vibrational Nature (The Spirit Center)’ tuck it somewhere the sun don’t shine, guided by Melvin Oliphant’s signature droll but stare-down vox.
Solutions