New York-based Americana/folk musical project Mortal Prophets just released the album “The Twang Gang (live in Berlin)”…the whole album is 32 minutes long and should be experienced in one sitting as if you’re attending this journey live.
…if no one told me this was a live album, I wouldn’t have known, the quality of this one is mind-blowing.
With their frontman John Beckmann on vocals and harmonica, Parker Bryant on guitars, Concertina on bass, Richmond Davis on organ and harmonica, and Beckett Laurent on percussion and programming…this is the whole gang of Mortal Prophets…and “The Twang Gang” is their latest journey, full of psychedelics and ambient dreamy folk tunes…
The album has a very ‘acid/psychedelic’ feel to it…a strong musical experimentation is going on here and on full display…Moral Prophets don’t shy away from any exploration into uncharted musical territories, they welcome it.
The tracks are instrumentals…with some words appearing here and there that give it the live feeling…with some minimal vocoder appearing in “Can you feel It”…which is like two songs in one…the first part is very folky and indie…the second part is like a soundtrack…a transitional soundtrack of some kind…then following this transition is another experimental track…”Ride Em High”…
The transition I was pointing out is like a shift in the album, taking us into another dimension…”Ride Em High” has straight-on vocals…which is a big shift…both melodically and vocally too!
It’s like a twist in the middle of the movie “From Dusk Till Dawn”…it almost completely changes everything!
…if you didn’t watch the movie, I won’t spoil it…go watch it after you listen to the album.
…from there, the album continues to take that twist and runs with it…” Alamo Aloha” maintains that mood…then it changes up with “Dog Face Joe”, one of the shortest songs on the album, and one of the most intriguing…the vocals here are not for singing…it’s more of a storytelling element.
That is not the end of shaking things up…wait till you reach “Psychotronic Guitar Lullaby”…this is perfection…and lullaby it is.
Mortal Prophets manages to mesmerize our souls with their unique approach to musical storytelling…like nothing else we’ve experienced…absolutely unique.
I wish Mortal Prophets all the best and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Cheers!