Back in June we wrote about ‘Red Line‘, the debut single from C.J. Red Mouth‘s new EP Greenhouse. “A reflection on an old commute,” as we described, where “the slow creeping sound evokes the grimy dark of the Boston subway.” But as the song develops so too does its sense of momentum, “as though,” we continued, “quite literally barrelling toward the light at the end of the tunnel, culminating in an ecstatic finale complete with primal screaming.”
The song was the perfect introduction to an EP which looks to escape the systems and people which make life difficult via cathartic expressions of vulnerability. Each song on the release approaches a breaking point of some kind, where frustrations, fears and anger reach a critical mass and precipitate. The screaming crescendo of ‘Red Line’ captured this eruption most directly, and though the title track might not be quite as explosive, there’s still a gathering energy which builds beats its fists on the glass walls of its cage. ‘to take your hand’ follows a similar pattern, the hushed tone coalescing into something heavy as the vocals circle like thoughts at the dead of night.
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Again offering an intimate acoustic opening, ‘Garlic Song’ offers a quiet, personal vibe, though one loaded with the attached baggage of violence and control. The weight of an empty room, or perhaps the internal pressures which never quite equalise no matter how sedate the present moment might seem. “Garlic on my kitchen shelf / They’ve all begun to sprout,” as C.J. Red Mouth sings, “peel the sheaths right off their backs / Crush the growing buds out.” But within the action lies an implicit fury, and a reminder of past cruelty held inside like a scar. “And it strikes me, the brutality / In my fingers all along,” as the lines continue. “And I wonder at the violence / That my body’s holding onto.”
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Greenhouse is out now and available from the C.J. Red Mouth Bandcamp page.
Album art by Jesso Wang