Another Number Comes On: A Brief Review Of The New EP from Mass Observation (Lorelei, Lake Ruth, The New Lines)

What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be!

Davis White (Lorelei; We Capillaries; The New Lines) and Hewson Chen (Lake Ruth; The New Lines) have joined up forces remotely as a new band called Mass Observation. The group's debut self-titled EP is up on Bandcamp now and it's fairly far removed from the acts these two have been in before, but it retains the shimmering elegance of the material of any of those earlier projects.

While "Temperature" marries a faintly Joy Division-like sense of mission (heard in the vocals and forward tempo), "From Honey to Ashes" recalls bits of early Smiths and Orange Juice. The strength of the playing here, and Chen's way of singing, really give off a strong mid-Eighties English indie-vibe, but the rhythmic undercurrents feel much more familiar. White's drumming here is closer to contemporaries in D.C. bands that thrived in the post-punk boom of the Nineties, even as it gets harder still on the superb closer "Another Number Comes In". That jagged beast, the rougher cousin to the smooth opener "Capitalist Arithmetic", had me air drumming and I can't say that I ever did that when listening to Lorelei, for example.

Still, Mass Observation deserve to be heard on their own, without comparing what's here to the players' other bands. And that so much of this too-brief EP works so well is great. Not only does this sort of surprise with an entirely new sound from these musicians, but it was recorded during a pandemic, and likely remotely and separately. The post-punk is strong here, and one can hear echos of peers like Office of Future Plans and Deathfix in snatches of this, even as Mass Observation seem to be charting their own propulsive path forward.

Mass Observation by Mass Observation is up on Bandcamp now via the link below.

More details on The New Lines via the official Facebook page. Start there for now until this duo produces another release.