There’s a saying that goes only you can make you happy. Who ever came up with that clearly hasn’t listened to The Jim Mitchells.
It literally takes about 10 seconds of listening to their new EP, Planet Absorbed, before a big fat smile is forcibly planted on your ugly mug and the grey skies and low times and all that other superfluous shit that you don’t need in your live is washed away. And it’s this kind of music that you need to cherish whenever it comes along.
Take a trip through psychedelic balladry, space rock landscapes, 60s garage freakouts and punk throwdowns with The Jim Mitchells on Planet Absorbed.
The Jim Mitchells are a 5-strong band of bandits blasting some seriously good psych rock out of Sydney.
Led by luminary weirdo Jim Mitchell, who made his way across the desert from WA and relocated in Sydney a little over a year ago, the band paste together the best elements of 60s garage and 70s krautrock with a sprinkling of punk madness and shoegaze haze.
Some might mistake them for early King Gizzard or the more sun-soaked side of POND on first listen, but the sum of their parts is neither derivative nor tired.
They fell into our laps at the start of the year with the title track of the EP we’re today premiering, Planet Absorbed – a blisteringly fun tune with all the torn speaker guitar riffs, manic shouts, ooo’s and ahh’s you could ever want from a band with a clear 60s rock ethos driving them.
But Planet Absorbed – the EP that is – is by no means a one dimensional effort from the band. Actually for a debut EP it’s surprisingly diverse, with psychedelic balladry (Wanted), space rock instrumentals ((It’s A Sign….)), punkish throwdowns (Planet Absorbed) and more crammed into a package that barely breaks the 25 minute mark.
Having cut his teeth playing in bands in Western Australia, it’s clear that the magic that has seeped into so many other bands from the state has not failed to rub off on Mitchell too.
There is this unmistakable sense of creative freedom that runs throughout each track, one that manifests itself in so many different ways; be it a wail of a blown-out harmonica, a Beatles harmony (clearly performed by one person), a lonely droning synthesiser or a manic bellow.
Each song is decidedly different, yet all are tied together by their disparity. Wanted is worlds away from Planet Absorbed in tempo and temperament, but the backing vocals and fuzz guitars in each make you want to listen to the other track, and vice versa.
The long instrumental passages on You Unfollow Me and Alone, Stone echo the vocal-less space adventure (It’s A Sign…) prompting this kind of muscle memory that makes you anticipate the latter. It’s actually a very clever record in this respect – each song is a reminder of how good all of the other ones are.
Nothing stands out as a ‘best track’ per se. Planet Absorbed is clearly the single because it’s catchy as hell. But the whole EP plays into the ethos of an LP: that it must be listened to as a whole, in succession.
Each track has it’s own character, and there are clear sonic motifs that carry throughout each track, but its diversity means that you need to listen to the EP in its entirety to get all you can out of it. If you don’t you might as well wipe that smile off your face and start again.
Planet Absorbed is out now via Third Eye Stimuli Records – get it on vinyl here.
The Jim Mitchells are about to hit the road in support of the EP. Catch them here:
17th Sep // Rad Bar, Wollongong w/ Velvet Elevator & The Gum Drops
18th Sep // El Sol, Cronulla – w/ The Gum Drops
25th Sep // Shark Bar, Miami w/ Sunrose, TRAPDOOR & Radolescent
30th Sep // Moonshine Hotel Steyne, Manly w/ Zefereli
