Album of the Week – Shout Until Our Lungs Turn Blue by Mother Jack

‘Shout Until Our Lungs Turn Blue’ by Mother Jack is Eastside Radio’s album of the week.

Last week our featured album here at the station was an artist’s debut record and this week we bring you yet another debut album from an emerging duo act. Being a debut album some may expect it to be a little rough around the edges, not so professionally sounding, well be corrected as Mother Jack’s brand new release is of stand out quality and talent. With two artist’s bringing a combination of vocals and double bass they have produced their own unique experimental sound of Alternative Indie with touches of Jazz and Funk.

Mother Jack is made up of Casey Moir and Johan Moir who are based in Gothenburg, they have been making stamps across the Alternative, Jazz and specialty music scene for a few years now, having played numerously on stages in Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Estonia and of course our music loving country of Australia. It was back in 2012 that they were awarded “most promising up-and-coming band” at the Melbourne Fresh Showcase. One year later and we got to hear the pairs EP titled ‘Presents..’ which was received very well by fans and new listeners. Two years later again in 2015 they have released their first album ‘Shout Until Our Lungs Turn Blue’. It has gone down a success in their home country of Sweden and I am sure fans will love it here also as it has that bold naked sound of real music.

With eight tracks we are brought on an experimental ride of powerful vocals and a range of different instruments, along with doing vocals Casey Moir also plays the floor tom, glockenspiel, live loop, shaker and kazoo, so we get to hear some real interesting sounds. The live loop recording is a key factor with their unique sound as they use this in a lot of their tracks to bring us on a whirlwind of uniqueness and ‘stepping outside the box’ style of music. The album itself was recorded by at Göteve Kapell in May and September 2014. Throughout the record their is a a collection of talent working on it, on a few tracks we get to hear from Isabel Sörling, Kristina Issa, Hanna Bylund, Erik Fastén and Filip Bagewitz singing choir. On the production end of things the album was mixed and digitally mastered by Per Stenbeck and the vinyl master was done by Hans Olsson Brookes at Svenska Grammofon Studio. Being their first debut album you can imagine that all of these helping hands would have put in a lot of love and passion into the record as well.

As above the live looping is really something that they have figured out how to blend in well with their sound. The ever growing use of live looping that is becoming more popular everyday is used throughout the record, a track that is a must listen if you are not to familiar with the quirky sounds that can be produced through this technique is one of the first tracks on the album titled ‘I’m Fine’. If your purchasing the album for the sounds of the double bass, along with all the tracks one that Johan Moir starts off beautifully is the uplifting track titled ‘Late’. For a track that has it all especially some wonderful vocals is ‘Problems’ as we get to hear a mix of instruments as well as some long ranging tones.

If you want an album that is full of it’s own style, like nothing else out there then this is it. There is no denying that a lot of it is pretty deep and can sound quite slow paced however as it is slow it doesn’t drag, it just glides through as every few seconds a new sting of a different instrument breaks in or all of a sudden we get to hear from different voices coming in on a choir. By writing all the music and lyrics themselves this is a debut album that needs to be recognised, if you want alternative, improvisation sounds coming out of Europe pick up this album. They have been touring Australia since 2011 so you can be sure they will be back, keep the eyes out for this one as it deserves as much appreciation as it is unique.

Track Listing