MOULD - Hoping As A Coping Mechanism

To be labelled a post-punk band in the mid-20s is something of a poisoned chalice. While following in the footsteps of groups as seminal and varied as Gang of Four or Talking Heads, the genre has become repetitive and stagnant as its once-heralded compositional tropes are now tired and hackneyed.

Bristol’s MOULD completely dash these notions of the genre being staid. On their debut LP, ‘Hoping as a Coping Mechanism’, MOULD display a level of range and heft that seeks to revitalise the landscape of post-punk by delving into more farflung generic corners. Opener ‘Mistanthrope’ and ‘Lucid’ paint bleak internal portraits from a driving stoner-y post-hardcore palette, the spindly guitar acrobatics of ‘Emotive Language’ display a math-rock technicality, and the slacker swagger of ‘Hatching’ or ‘Superseded’ evoke the Seattle / Olympia scene indie flavours of early Modest Mouse.

Broad and utterly engaging, ‘Hoping as a Coping Mechanism’ is chic in the territory it pushes post-punk into - something rarer than you would think today. MOULD have crafted a refreshing and muscular debut that chooses optimism over nihilism, realising it is the only way to live - you just have to be brave enough to make that choice.