Once upon a time, in the cold isolated lands of North East Scotland, lived Russell Kostulin – aka Mammoeth – an as yet little known relative of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, with music in his blood and the ambition to write the perfect album in his heart. One day Russell decided to do just that and masterfully merged a love of telling tales – (grown and gathered from the darkest reaches of his vivid, metaphor filled imagination) – with his accomplished wizardry on multiple instruments and a classically trained touch on the old violin.
And ‘Nascent’ was born. An album influenced by eclectic tastes – from doo-woop to dubstep, hip-hop to power pop and a big dollop of American indie folk rock – and formed of beautifully structured, magnificently layered, jaunty, alt -pop perfect songs. Soaring melodies and violins, handclaps, harmonizing and a warming gentle feel of long hazy Summer nights spent drinking sweet whisky. However, as with all good story telling, never be fooled by the light, for look closely and beneath the surface lurks a dark lyrical underbelly, where ‘Nascent’s’ sweetly sick sourness creeps out its pores and songs about wendy houses, fathers and sons, stalkers, car crashes, dead sisters, war and politics, wives and exes and even Fresian cows jostle for attention, as if in a pop-up book of short bedtime stories.
As various characters – real and imagined – pop to life in the lyrics of each intricate song, the music comes alive with help from a collective of talented merry men. Twisted Nerve’s ex indie hero’s Alfie make an appearance with Sam Morris on horns and Matt McGeever on cello, evoking fond memories of Badly Drawn Boy and Twisted Nerve with their equally splendid penchant for off-kilter classic songs. An undoubtedly beautiful collaboration orchestrated by Nascent’s producer Robin Housman of Manchester’s Amplisound Studio’s. Our hero, Russell composed and played every other instrument, with the exception of drums (courtesy of Pete Marshall).
And so time past, creative juices worked their magic and the dream grew into a reality, with the music box already blasting out tracks courtesy of Tom Robinson on BBC6 Music, Janice Forsyth on BBC Scotland and Vic Galloway on Radio 1. And the ever-growing, evolving carousel of friends and family (with Russell’s sisters on strings) prepare for two live shows hosted in the bustling heartland of Russell’s Scotland in July (details to follow). A full UK tour with fellow Edinburgers, the Kays Lavelle, will follow in late Autumn.
