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Reviews

We Contain Multitudes — Minako
(Bandcamp Expert Work Records, 2025, 2LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-08-21

Minako Cover art

Sometimes the qualities that make a particular piece of music appealing to a particular listener are readily apparent, but other times the reasons may be obscure. The elements that go into the music on Minako, the debut album by We Contain Multitudes, are not especially remarkable on their own — space rock, psychedelic rock, math rock, post-punk — but something about the way the music is put together just clicks. For me at least, which is the understood baseline for all reviews. In a rather bold choice, the set starts with the title track, a sixteen minute slab of riffs that range from a tasty psych groove to a much heavier sound; and it ends with several minutes of overdriven droning and feedback from the guitar. While it’s built from what’s essentially a one-chord jam, as most of the tracks are, it’s put together in a way that doesn’t sound like musicians who’ve run out of ideas. It’s not just endless repetition of simple figures, but constantly evolving combinations of elements — they hit that sweet spot where repeated patterns become hypnotic instrumental mantras. The other five tracks are all much shorter than “Minako,” and strike different balances of elements and levels of energy. “Can We Just Not?” jumps out with a faster tempo and many more chord changes, not to mention some mathy touches; “D9” strikes an anthemic tone; “We Are All Fucked” starts with a couple minutes of aggressive riffing, then drops down to a slow build from quieter spaces; and “Bathroom Drugs” is a joy from start to finish, with a busy drum part that reminds me of Battles and interlocking bass and guitar parts. Jon Fine (primarily guitars), Simon Kobayashi (bass), and Orestes Morfin (drums) developed much of their music by sharing files, as the three live in widely separated geographical areas (Fine in New York City, Morfin in Tucson, Arizona, and Kobayashi in London), then brought it all together with some real in-the-same-room time. While this is their first recording, the group has been working together for nearly ten years, so my hopes are that they’ll carry on and give us another good album before too long.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): We Contain Multitudes

More info
http://expertworkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/minako

 

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