From the minds of Ought drummer Tim Keen and collaborators Kaity Zozula and Amy MacDonald comes Mands, a Montreal-based project that’s post-hardcore, post-industrial– post-genre, really. Mands is loud, noisy, and wholly consuming.
The trio’s tape, 15/6/2014, is drawn from one long, powerful jam session. Over a continuous stretch of vast darkness, MacDonald spews stream-of-conscious lyrics that repeat as mantras: “Smile,” she begins on “Keeper,” and it’s all at once menacing and alluring. Moments of eerie quiet and piercing noise alternate, as drums clang and clatter and guitars shriek and soar. By track’s end, MacDonald is thrown into the dizziest depths of insanity, yet fully in control. “All I see are the backs of my eyes,” she screams.
Mands came together inspired by bands like Ampere, Nu Sensae, and Nine of Swords, but through extensive experience playing in other projects, Keen, Zozula and MacDonald offer something that’s slightly unsettling, yet entirely new. The band’s tape is out now on Montreal label Misery Loves Company.
