Unsurprisingly, I’m digging the new song, the third he’s (Matt Christensen) released since late last year. They will all be part of Muthi’s sophomore LP, tentatively titled Witchcraft due out later this year.
Christensen, as I noted in my story, said that he had some interesting merch planned and it wouldn’t be the typical stuff, like t-shirts. He wasn’t kidding. This past week, he also dropped his own brand of incense on the Dudes site, with flavors named after a few of his songs (“Witchcraft,” “Dragon Mountain,” “Vice & Appetite” and “High Water Marks”).
What I really love about Muthi’s brand of indie psych pop is the way it manages to have it multiple ways at the same time (just as in life, moods can be mixed). The songs can be both dark and upbeat, and this latest track is an example of that.
Muthi and Mcbaise. PHOTO BY DEREK BREMNER; COURTESY OF DIRTY MELODY RECORDS
I did hold back an interesting nugget from my notebook because the main piece was getting rather lengthy, and I really wanted to highlight this bit.
Two years ago, when I interviewed the incredible Mcbaise (read that interview, conducted in London, here), I asked him (Matthieu Bessudo aka the illustrator mcbess and also the creative force behind Mcbaise) about the song on Muthi’s Visions LP that the two collaborated on, “Power Boat.”
Mcbaise, as I point out in my recent story, does provide the bass, synth/keyboard and production for Muthi. He is part of Muthi, but on “Power Boat,” he also delivers some of the vocals, and while two years ago I hadn’t figured out his full involvement in the Muthi project, I knew he worked on the song because of those vocals and the more prominent credit he was given.
“Power Boat,” is some of Muthi’s best work all around, layers of funky, watery psychedelia and twisted lyrics.
“My dreams agree
If you mix it strong you might forget
We serve at the pleasure of the Queen”
I figured the song was fair game for discussion so I asked Mcbaise about the song’s meaning back then, but he kindly said that was something I should ask Muthi about. While he is part of Muthi, he does not lead it creatively.
Fair enough, and so it was two years before I got that opportunity.
“In my power boat
Even when you lose you win the most
In my power boat
In my power boat
Just another thing you’ll never know
In my power boat”
I’ll admit, it takes no stroke of genius to think maybe they’re writing about corruption and power here, but I wondered if there was anything I was missing. Maybe not.
“I’m glad that kind of came across,” he said. “That is what the kernel of it was. I think I had been watching some shit on TV. And there was a guy doing reviews of power boats in Monaco. I was like, Who the fuck owns these things? And yea, there is this I think it is something we are grappling with as a society sort of globally — just huge amounts of inequality. When you are on the other side of that line, sort of looking up at it. It’s just considering that. Corruption is definitely at the root of that.”
I should point that Christensen grew up in South Africa.
He is also marketing director for The Dudes, a boutique retailer that sells art prints, clothing and vinyl from the affiliated Dirty Melody Records. It might get a little confusing, but Matthieu Bessudo (aka Mcbaise and mcbess) is the main artistic driving force behind all of it. He’s a noted illustrator but he takes his music creation just as seriously.
Back in 2021, they both appeared on each other’s albums, and on the flip side, Muthi was a main character in the satirically dark music video for “Cobra,” one of the gems from Mcbaise’s Tubes LP.
SPOILER ALERT: Muthi murders Mcbaise in this music video and yet, you’ll find yourself laughing at the violence (or at least I did) which reminds me of how I first reacted to the movie “Burn After Reading” when John Malkovich’s fired CIA character takes a hatchet to the gym manager.
Of course, I never learn and immediately asked how they came up with that music video concept.
“Cobra is an interesting one,” he said. “That is a mcbess track that I was lucky enough to guest on. Creatively, that is Mcbaise territory. So similarly … it would be wrong for me to speak too much on that.
“But as far as us coming up with concepts for videos, we’ve worked together and brainstormed on quite a few things. That is always the most difficult part, coming up with a great concept for a video and how do you execute that within the limits of budget and time.”
Which gets us to that scoop I mentioned in the headline: It sounds like we can expect a new music video from Mcbaise relatively soon.
So, Mcbaise fans, stay tuned here for that.