Mesadorm – Epicadus
Bristol band Mesadorm's second LP is an acoustic take on their debut Heterogaster, and one to check out if you want to experience it from a new perspective
You might be wondering where you’ve heard that voice before. A nagging memory of sentimentality creeping up from somewhere deep in your gut, the taste of mulled wine blooming on your tongue or the scent of cinnamon in the air. Mesadorm’s lead singer, Blythe Pepino, was the voice behind the only non-tearjerker John Lewis Christmas ad Buster the Boxer, her sweetly haunting vocals accompanying 2016’s march through the festive season.
Fittingly, Pepino’s voice manages to evoke nostalgia all on its own, as evidenced in the Bristol five-piece’s latest LP, Epicadus. It’s an acoustic outing that builds on the band’s 2018 debut, Heterogaster, from which seven of the new album’s ten tracks are taken.
What’s most striking is the way the band recreate tracks from Heterogaster – the throbbing guitars and massive crescendos – unbound by their acoustic limitations. Obsidian’s crackling dramatic finale of crashing drums and deep, dark strings is mimicked by pure vocal power alone on the Epicadus version; all the band coming together in a tender, joyous wail.
That’s not to say that translating existing songs to acoustic works every time. The charm of Heterogaster’s Easy is in its slightly shambolic nature, much of which is lost when tightened up for Epicadus. It retains its nursery rhyme-esque melody, but is perhaps polished a little too hard.
Of the few new songs, The Joy It Joins Us Up is a beauty: simple piano backs clear, wistful lyrics that are half love song, half breakup. Recorded in the St Peter’s Church, Eype – the same church PJ Harvey recorded Let England Shake – the meditative atmosphere that comes from holy places infiltrates each beat. This quality traverses the entire album: choral harmonies float in and out, keys take on church organ elements, all adding to the album's melancholia.
The link that binds everything together is, of course, Pepino. Her voice is plaintive, sometimes smooth as silk, at others the rawness rushes the edges, threatening to break through. Epicadus is one to check out if you were charmed by Heterogaster and want to experience it from a new perspective.
Listen to: Obsidian, The Joy It Joins Us Up