Attention. This switch is gonna change your body building blocks underneath the black (hole) sun opposite the enemy of Andre Agassi. Jk. Or not?
Northern German-based Post-Rock ensemble have released their second full-length following 2017’s Paternoster and this time it’s obvious that the time that has passed surely contributed to the development of the band. Although Infinite Heights is more slender and just by a bit surpasses the 30 minute mark, the record and the songs are not less interesting. Additionally, it sometimes seems as if bass-player Bernd Fricke has imported some of the things/ideas and soundscapes he uses for his side-project The Heimlich Manøver which he started amid the pandemic with his bandfellow J.R. Haneborger who plays guitar in MMTH. The fact that THM is much more synth-driven is an indicator for the origin of a song like Infinite Heights-opener ”Trigger” which is as close to a synth-Post-Rock track in the vein of Maserati or From Monument To Masses as MMTH have ever been. However, and here comes the aforementioned complexity into play, that track exemplifies perfectly that MMTH have been seeking to give their songs more depth and here they do so, by churning out some pretty chunky riffs and guitar lines. The sound is a bit distorted without ever turning onto the real fuzz-Stoner-highway. By the way, the interlude ”Dark Sun” shows the dark Ambient side of things even more but at the same time it is also a little clearer and more accessible in its approach.
The video for the first single “Relais”
MMTH’s sophomore record is one of nuances, of little tidbits and that makes it so good. Don’t think about its brevity but rather about its multitude of ideas. However, the guys from Germany North Sea coast can also riff it out nicely as you can clearly hear on the single ”Relais”, which is one of three tracks longer than six minutes. What is pretty cool is that they take the classic Post-Rock structure of ever-overlapping dynamics and simply turn the volume up to eleven so that this structure is not clear at the beginning, but only after a while.
Second single ”Muscle Memory” on the other side is driven and pushed forward by drummer Hanno Janßen who displays his skills and ideas perfectly on this track, one can simply feel the joy this track must give him. Joy – another thing that quickly comes to mind, when listening to Infinite Heights: the quartet surely had a lot of fun putting these six tracks together, because they are all bragging and brimful of colors and ideas, twists and turns. For example, when ”Muscle Memory” takes a shortcut through feisty Indie Rock Riff-country while simultaneously connecting two very different passages, one can see the smirk on the faces of guitar players Haneborger and Carlo Persh. And isn’t that one of the most important things for any kind of record? Any genre? Any band? The fun element connecting all band members so that the whole thing keeps being interesting. Surely that’s the case here.
Interest should have also been raised by our opening paragraph. Wonder what is has to do with the record? Well, think about the tracklist. ”Trigger”, “Relais”, “Altérié”, “Muscle Memory”, “Dark Sun” and ”Sampras”. ;-) Now you have thought (and read) a lot about MMTH’s new record - maybe you should simply listen to it?
And here is the mighty powerful video for “Muscle Memory”
