In spite of the loads of hardcore punk and extreme metal works we’ve covered in recent years, 2017 proved an astonishing year for experimental prog and math rock music, signifying the shrinking gap between avant-garde creations and ear-catching pop melodies. We’ve seen a bunch of great independent artists moving towards a consciously experimental direction and it’s always a great pleasure to welcome yet another interesting band that proves it’s able to build complex, layered compositions, built on catchy riffs, and smart dynamic shifts. “Dumadu Honey”, the newest track and video by Croation progressive, mathy noise rock trio THEM MOOSE RUSH showcases a number of influences, while staying firmly rooted within the realm of experimental rock.
“Don’t Pick Your Noise”, the new album by THEM MOOSE RUSH is released worldwide on 9th March 2018 on TMR Records with a vinyl version released through Dostava Zvuka.
“The basic concept for the video popped up in our minds immediately when recording the song because the intro riff, together with the cymbals sound very much like a typewriter. It’s a kind of robotic and repetitive song, almost as if you are just tapping the same pattern over and over again.” – offers the band’s Nikola Runjavec. “We like to think of ourselves as very visual and musical, so we wanted to connect this idea and name the song accordingly. We presented the concept to our video director Dinko Štimac, who is a genius and genuinely creative guy. After some quick brainstorming, he had a vision of an office theme and based it all around an ASCII typewriter. When we realized, we could visualize with ASCII code almost anything, the idea of the guy typing out his fantasies onto the paper seemed very psychedelic and crazy, which of course, fits the song perfectly.”
Video Director Dinko Štimac adds:
“The repetitive nature of ‘Dumadu Honey’ served as a basis for building the idea for the video. And what’s more repetitive than a guy sitting behind a desk at work every day, typing out data onto loads and loads of paper? When we thought of using papers full of ASCII pictures scrolling through a typewriter, we stuck to the idea even if we didn’t quite know how to pull it off. I initially thought we’ll print thousands of sheets of paper and do a time-lapse, but that would’ve taken too much time, so I programmed it in post effects. The papers and their content basically represent the office guy dealing with his repetitive and unfulfilling life and his brain desperately seeking for some kind of stimuli. Page by page, it drives him to madness, which in end liberates him and sets him free.”
Hailing from the city of Bjelovar in Croatia, Them Moose Rush are a progressive rock band unlike any other. Working in a genre often fuelled by pomp and circumstance the Eastern European trio have always done things for themselves, and in doing so, done it all inimitably. From directing their own music videos to producing their own photographs, the band even has a penchant for hiding cyphers in songs via Morse codes on keyboards and palindrome/semordnilap messages. And away from the devil in the detail, they simply rock harder and faster than anyone else.
Combining vintage vibes which play dutifully with the blues and heavy rock, their approach to song writing and production bursts with innovation. Much like 2013’s To Future Miss Sunshine, their second full-length album Don’t Pick Your Noise pushes riff after chaotic riff in an attempt to challenge listeners’ perceptions of what a rock and roll trio is truly capable of. Following their debut the band released two EPs that quickly helped establish them as live fixtures on the European festival and tour circuit, performing at Europavox (France), Eurosonic (Holland), INmusic (Croatia) and Krach Am Bach (Germany), alongside international bands such as The Black Keys, Arcade Fire, Pixies, Colour Haze, The Vintage Caravan and Mars Red Sky.
From lead singer Nikola Runjavec’s devastating vocal range, spanning a sonic spectrum that takes in Geddy Lee, Robert Plant and Jack White, to bass player Branimir Kuruc and drummer Vedran Marinko Komlen’s tight ship of a rhythm section, Don’t Pick Your Noise is a progressive, space-fuelled majesty of electric alt-rock and Machina melody.
THEM MOOSE RUSH are: Nikola Runjavec – Guitar, Vocals; Branimir Kuruc – Bass; Vedran Marinko Komlen – Drums.
