The recently released “Itch” by Greek rock quartet MAMMOCK caught our attention real quick with its “weird” mixture of post-hardcore with noise rock, eccentric riffage, experimental rhythms, time signatures and dynamics that will surely give a demanding listener an enjoyable time! What an invigorating listen. Today, we give it a respectful nod through a special, first hand track by track rundown below!
“The world is a wonderfully weird place…” Tom Robbins, Still life with woodpecker
The above phrase might very well be the epicentre of the Mammock universe. We are living in weird times, in a weird place, and our ways keep getting even weirder. Mammock get inspired by the world around them to weave a web of several songs for their debut LP entitled “Itch”, reflecting on their thoughts and feelings over the past few years.
The approach followed was holistic, aiming to craft a raw organic sound of their own and deliver a total that is greater than just the sum of its parts. The recording sessions turned out to be smooth and entertaining, leaving everyone absolutely satisfied with the end result. “Itch” has been a wild ride, therefore Mammock hope that everyone enjoys this album as much as they have!
“There’s no fix for this itch…” – Mammock
From the very first moment the band came to be, we all knew and had agreed that we would approach everything as a collaborative process. This does not exclude someone bringing up an original idea or a whole song structure; but it would be open for rearrangements and always filtered on a band level.This would be applied also to lyrics.
So we gathered ideas and jammed a lot, but without trying to be strict in guidelines stylistically. We reached a point, where the developed songs could be grouped together and considered as pieces of the same puzzle. Striving for a full length, rather than a small EP! Afterwards and before we enter the studio for preproduction, a few shows came in order “to test” the songs, improve them and keep what was substantial. Always believing that through a collective effort, we can achieve a multidimensional character musically, while our individual artistic expression would not stay in the back. – Mammock
Caterpillar
This is one of our most in-your-face songs, and it was easy to pick it up as the album’s opener. Words come from personal experiences in human relationships. However, one could easily say that they reflect on how we all behave in the age of prevailing image and social media. People are so concerned with how they look; all the while they blame others for their own problems. We are so quick and easy to judge, never really concerned with the consequences of our actions and lacking emotional intelligence, so easily tempered. We all got the Itch…
Theme For Pets
We are really proud of the way this song came into life. It started with that specific drum rhythm, while jamming, the bass interacted and the guitar rocked the whole thing out! The word “Theme” in the title came to mind, as the main riff appears here and there throughout the song. Lyrics were built around the title, resulting in an animal retaliation concept as some of us are avid pet lovers!
Shark Attack
Musically, this might be the most “out there” one, but we believe that it brings another thing to the whole concept of this album and how we approach music in general. The idea started from the guitar, and as we worked around that rockabilly thing; we put some plot and twists to finally get where we wanted. Our friend Viktor, who is also a music mate from other bands and projects, improvises on the saxophone by the end of the song. Now, about the lyrics… In our society, there are “sharks”of all kinds. Greedy as they are, they breed fear and prey on human blood. Guess which ones impress us the most? Those whose deadliest weapon is their preaching…
Dirty Shoes
With hardcore music in mind, Dirty Shoes is very up-tempo and aggressive, the kind of “one breath” song that every band has to have. Lyrics deal with one of the most critical problems of our times, the refugee and immigrant crisis. No human being should suffer and die in search of a better life. We are angry and unhappy with this whole situation and we stand against people who use it in their political agenda to spread hate speech, racism and fascism.
Inconstant State, Hot Summer
The original ideas for this song go back in time. This is the first one of the two longest tracks. It begins aggressively, halfway through things get more lyrical and in the end the thing rises to a groovy outro. The result is a song with variety, which is always fun to play. Here the inspiration comes from the huge crisis we have experienced for more than a decade in our country, resulting in a deep social turmoil and unrest. We wouldn’t like to comment more on this, as we want everyone to explore the lyrics in their own manner. We have all been living our life through these years in our own way, thinking and acting differently. Some have made their way though these times and others are still fighting. Some have lost their fight and others have won. One thing is for sure. “We all boil in the same boiler”, as goes a popular Greek wisdom.
This Letter
Again the roots of the song age a bit, and it was the last and longest song composed for the LP. We worked on it for an entire summer and then we spent a couple of months on its re-arrangement. The lyrical theme is abstract and very solid at the same time. It could be a discussion about the meaning of life between different characters. It could be the conflicting thoughts of the same person or the diary of a life journey. To reflect that on the music side of things; we didn’t want just to incorporate music styles for the sake of it, but to encompass many ingredients of our sound with smooth changes and smart structures while keeping a weird rock attitude. Time will tell if we achieved this, but we hope people will enjoy it, this track and the whole album as much as we did making it!
