Hum and Haw: The Music of Mouthus

Map It:  U Street-Cardozo 

MOUTHUS, A PSYCHEDELIC noise-rock duo from Brooklyn, N.Y., have just released their first proper studio recording, "Saw a Halo," after five straight years of capturing their exquisite racket solely on low-budget equipment in their rehearsal space.

"We're always looking to develop our sound and keep it fresh," guitarist Brian Sullivan says. "We'd also like to widen our audience, so we can continue to keep doing what we do."

Their sound: a dense, steady-built buzz of mangled pickup hum, electronically treated percussion and chanted obscurities, imparts a rarified form of distorted bliss. Sometimes unrelentingly torturous, but always strangely narcotic — not your parents' magic carpet ride.

Popular with critics and a seedling fan base, their early recordings were by no means unsatisfactory. Quite the contrary — those sessions, released on various indie imprints — including Sullivan and drummer Nate Nelson's own Our Mouth Records — sounded crude, but over time fans figured they were supposed to sound that way.

These recordings set them apart from their art-punk contemporaries, and critics soon came calling, as did Sonic Youth guitarist (and talent scout for life) Thurston Moore, who released a Mouthus basement session on his label Ecstatic Peace, 2004's "Loam."

"Halo" sees Mouthus continuing to push the limits of its improvisational, automatic compositional style. It also finds the twosome delighting in the clean, crisp, soundproofed environment of Brooklyn's Rare Book Room studio, where acoustic guitars and odd instruments made themselves known amid the duo's signature wall of scree.

"I think we're starting to change things up ... hopefully, without alienating too many of our fans," Sullivan says. "We just don't want to fall into the trap of expectations."

Their trademark polyrhythmic fusion remains key to their sound, however. Nelson's combination of real and electronic drums, rhythmically askew and replete with triggered samples, occasionally lock in with the guitar, then slowly disperse and go somewhere else. "Sometimes we end up circling each other," Sullivan says of his and Nelson's paranormal musical process.

"We always have a good time when we play D.C.," Sullivan insists. That means bring your earplugs.

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St.; Thu., 9 p.m., $8; 202-462-3213. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo courtesy Important Records