FLASHHEART – MOTHRA
Released January/February 2012

Words: Gaz Martinez

Having known of the progenitor to Flashheart, 13 Riots, I was very eager to get my headphones in and see what this EP has to offer, how it differs from their earlier work, and how it demonstrates their evolution as musicians. At first I’m presented with I’ve Got a Plan, a subtle and creepy start leads into what would have been a royally bombastic chorus, if this track wasn’t an instrumental, but the set up into the next song is effective. Upon hearing Mad Swallows one can tell that this EP is largely if not wholly self-produced, tracks like Claws shows a particularly low-fi sound on the guitars, while it would have been perhaps better for Flashheart to have aimed for a more refined guitar tone, the heavy sections do well enough as they are and remind me of Blur’s Song 2.

Like many self-produced efforts, Mothra sometimes falls into the same pitfalls such as occasionally very average mixing, the vocals could do with being louder in general while the harmonisations are sometimes mixed too far apart from each other to achieve that choral effect they seemed to be striving for.

This is not to say that this EP is completely flawed, strong songwriting is plentiful, My (Less Than) Perfect Week, is a strong demonstration of the band’s collective ability, changing pitch, tempo and maybe even genre with every new passage. With the slight addition of synths, it also seems to reflect their final departure from their previous sound as 13 Riots. And with the strangely discordant piano outro, it is definitely a decent song to end Mothra on.

For a first attempt, this self-produced piece of work should be commended, but I feel that the boys in Flashheart can make a greater impact and capture the attention of more people and potentially labels by investing in a professional record producer.