There has been a whole bunch of reviews coming in for the album, and most of them have been extremely favourable. It’s humbling and pleasing to know that all our hard work has been realised. There have also been a couple of interviews done about the band and the album. I have listed a bunch below for people who are interested in reading any of these:
interview in The Quietus done with Greg Neate
this review in Sounds XP.com
The Bent Moustache
Pastures New Seasons Turn Wormer Bros Records
Article written by Ged M – Oct 25, 2011
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| The Bent Moustache: Pastures New Seasons Turn |
So many bands make their influences apparent but this record by The Bent Moustache (their second, following 2007’s Forst) reimagines some of their and our favourite bands (and Paul Simon) in novel ways. ‘Skip A Breath’ states their intent in a shitstorm of squally noise that resolves with a melodic kick that could be My Bloody Valentine at their best. The title track starts full of electronic interference and then becomes a skyful of floaty shoegaze while ‘Hey Mate (I’ve Got Plenty To Spare)’ is primo quality Fall, complete with merciless Steve Hanley-style bass and surrealistic lyrics (and delivery) worthy of Mark E Smith. It’s the best triptych of tracks to open an album this year.
There’s plenty more to keep the attention, from the Higsonian post-punk-funk of ‘Loose Thinking Now’, complete with hooting brass section, to ‘The Sound of Sirens’. In a weird electronic landscape, Ajar Saggar intones, in best Ian Curtis tones, the familiar “hello darkness my old friend” in what might be an homage to, or evisceration of, the Simon & Garfunkel song. Genius!
The songs were written, recorded and written by Saggar, ex-Dandelion Adventure and Donkey (both had sessions for Peel), who’s lived in Holland for the past 20 years as musician/ soundman/engineer. He and his bandmates make an articulate art-rock noise that mixes aggressive post-punk rhythms with sweet boy/girl harmonies, killer riffs and addictive melodies for an experience which, while rooted in the past, makes it all sound refreshingly new and vital.
this review in Incendiary Magazine
The Bent Moustache – Pastures New, Seasons Turn
The Bent Moustache is without doubt a “Trickster” band but like all Tricksters, full of cunning wit and charm. Better that you’re on their side, we say.
Wormer Bros Records
A really great record is this: sprawling, cocky, ambitious and boasting no little nous. And surprising: I know and appreciate Ajay’s love of the Fall, it has always informed the Bent Moustache gigs I’ve seen, so I was expecting a bit of the determined gritty plod and barbed asides (and yes we do get it now and again here) but I wasn’t prepared for such a grandiose record, if I’m honest. More fool me.
The opener Skip A Breath is a dashing essay in sound, awash with guitars strings. Mid to high register white noise predominates and there are measured nods to the odd 80’s act (the string plucks are very ‘83 Bunnymen), but what the hell, it’s great. Following that, the title track is sleek and shiny in a metallic way, luxuriating in nuances of tone and texture. It’s diffident, and slightly aesthetic in its outlook; it has a feel of the stuff that Colin Newman’s late era Wire, (or Newman’s other project, Githead), knock out. The refrain is gloriously rich and supple and has that monastic, pure feel Ride could summon up back when they were good. Sod that, THIS is good…
I mentioned the Fall earlier, and Hey Mate (I’ve Got Plenty to Spare) is superficially like the Fall, (you could name the odd track such as for immediate reference, and it also boasts that glorious druggy feel that This Nations Saving Grace has, say), but the listener is more engrossed in the sardonic issue of Ajay’s waking dream. It’s like The Family of God’s epic rant Babble with a Hanley bass line. Heavy Jam could be off a very stoned 90’s Ochre Records release – or ADF gone hippy – a trippy maze of sticky guitars and Harpy-like kids voices leading the listener ever further into this riddle of a track…
Suddenly it’s time to focus again. Loose Thinking Now is a nervous and spiky Postcard blitz, playing Josef K at their own game. Following that sonic cold shower, we get back to slacker ways. Azad Hind grooves around oblivious to all in the basement, stoned off its tits and deciding to lecture us all in German: (this is a real stoner record, make no mistake): Ceramic Hobs, anyone or a groovy version of Twist/ Run/Repulsion? You decide. All In Our Hands is a straight down the line scuzz-rocker, (1991 vintage)… all thumping bass and slightly abstract guitar shapes whereas Sound of Sirens is a menacing electronic soliloquy, as black as pitch. Oh, remember that point I made earlier in this review about the Fall, well finally I can make it, sort of… Seine Meie Geheime Code is as close as the band gets to the Fall in tone but it’s a very funny in an el- el-ay-ay kinda way, and in some ways the Fall-isms are fitting when you consider the song’s subject matter; (having a pop at the flashier side of Manchestah).
And finally as if nothing that went before actually mattered, Outro is a refreshingly light sazz solo.
What a head trip.
The Bent Moustache is without doubt a “Trickster” band but like all Tricksters, full of cunning wit and charm. Better that you’re on their side, we say.
review in Oor magazine (Nov 2011):
review in NARC:
review in Mania
review in Penny Black Music:
Bent Moustache: Pastures New Seasons Turn
Reviewed By: Maarten Schiethart
Label: Wormer Brothers
Format: CD The Wormer is the name of an inland polder in moden Holland, Netherlands and the Bent Moustache, to follow in the hoofsteps of the old Donkey, is today’s quintessential and obstinate cowtown band from Holland; as if they were from that age when John Peel Shows still defined the standard on BBC Radio. Manic sounds coming from the tulip auction hall at Aalsmeer fed this bonanza tombola of 1990s new wave fun rock, and on, for example, track such as ‘Heavy Jam’.
The Bent Moustache, however, go much further. There are moments where strideful Anticon type hip hop-rock meets continental Brit pop. Like their great ancestors , the EC Groove Society from 15 or 20 years ago, these cloggies often pull things back to the very simple. The childlike glockenspiel on ‘Heavy Jam’ should not lead away from the raunchy rumble that comes next. ‘Pastures New Seasons Turn’ is hardly an album as such, yet ever so entertaining and in a very Dutch way it must be noted.
review in Vera Krant
The Bent Moustache + Svetkoff Lamps
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011 Doors: 23:00-04:00 Start: 23:30 Price: Gratis + maandkaart (€ 1,50)
Genre: noisepop, Shoegaze File under: My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth From: Amsterdam/ Groningen
Fijn dat je zonder iets te hoeven zeggen Thomas je favoriete nederlandse bands boekt. Vanavond is er weer zo eentje, Thomas bedankt! The Bent Moustache uit Amsterdam. Ze hebben al wel eens eerder in de kelder gestaan en dat was toen ook al zo’n prachtavond. Ik kan waarschijnlijk wel twee pagina’s vol schrijven over het soort muziek dat deze band maakt en wat dat voor mij betekent maar ik zal hier volstaan met wat random superlatieven en referenties. The Bent Moustache is naar mijn bescheiden mening de meest ondergewaardeerde band uit Nederland. Het soort muziek wat ze maken is niet per se uniek maar de uitvoering er van is wel van topniveau. Leentjebuur spelen bij My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur jr en Sonic Youth is wat veel bands doen of pogen te doen. The Bent Moustache doet dat echter op een manier dat je het idee hebt dat je naar verloren opnames van eerdergenoemde bands aan het luisteren bent. Misschien niet geheel toevallig gezien het feit dat de oprichter van de bands Ajay Saggar jaren de vaste geluids man is geweest bij een aantal van die pioneers uit de jaren 80 en 90 indierock. The Bent Moustache lijkt wat dat betreft rechtstreeks weggelopen uit het geweldige “our band could be your life” boek van Michael Azarrad. Een boek dat voor mij uitlegt hoe muziek dient te klinken en wat het dient in te houden. The Bent Moustache begrijpt dat. En ze laten ook nog eens horen hoe tijdloos die bands uit de jaren 80 en 90 waren.