MOPE CITY - "POOPULATION 4" LP

TENTH COURT: Population 4 is the 4th full length album from Sydney (Bulanaming) based group Mope City, and sees the group creating their most eclectic and aberrant sounding work to date. Recorded over 2021-2022 at Audile Design studios with Pete Beringer and at home by Matt Neville, Population 4 projects the band's distinct strain of "downer-rock", with comparisons made to 90s indie rock bands such as Galaxie 500, Low, Slint, and Polvo. Beginning in 2012 with what was intended to be a 1 off EP titled Boo Fukin Hoo by Matthew Neville and Amaya Lang, recording from their share house bedroom in Marrickville, NSW, Mope City had no chance when it came to keeping their existence brief. Rather so, they recruited drummer Sam Wilkinson (Shrapnel) and continued on to self release the Disneybland EP (2013). The band then found themselves a label home on Tenth Court with the Halfway House 7” EP in 2014, and in 2015 revealed their debut full-length LP Petri Dish. Shortly after the release of Petri Dish, Wilkinson departed the group and Neville & Lang were once again a two piece and began slowly piecing together their second LP News From Home (2019), which was mixed and mastered by Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low). For third LP ‘Within the Walls’ (2021), Neville returned to mixing and production, swinging widely from a band playing loudly in a open room to a claustrophobic hall-closet mumur. Fourth upcoming album Population 4 is a further extension of those two combinations, but somehow each song combines the two elements, with experimental and improvised home recording techniques being seamlessly blended in with the spry studio recordings of the live band to create a despondent collage of sound.