MOJAVE 3 - EXCUSES FOR TRAVELLERS VINYL

Born from the ashes of Slowdive in 1995 by former members Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, and newly acquired drummer Ian McCutcheon, Mojave 3 began by recording six sparse, acoustic, vocally-driven tracks that stripped away the swirling guitar distortion that had once cloaked their singing in a veil of mystery, leaving Neil and Rachel’s vocal harmonies to stand fully exposed. The six-track demo sufficiently impressed 4AD label head Ivo Watts-Russell and Mojave 3 were signed to a five-album deal, with the original demos becoming the foundation of debut album and fan favourite, Ask Me Tomorrow.

Mojave 3’s debut, Ask Me Tomorrow, was a refreshingly stripped-down collection that changed little from the original demos. Halstead’s melodic, folk- and country-tinged songs drew favourable (if lazy) comparisons to Nick Drake, Cowboy Junkies and Bob Dylan. Three years later, Out of Tune continued where the first album left off and showed a group that had grown in both confidence and cohesiveness. Third album Excuses For Travellers contained some of the most ambitious Halstead compositions yet. Spoon and Rafter followed three years later marking another shift for the band. While still containing echoes of singer-songwriters and alt-country, the record represents a technicolour expansion of their palette that utilises electronics, glockenspiels, melodica, and Beatlesque production. Their final album, 2006’s Puzzles Like You is a positively bright and fun record that feels right at home next to indie rock contemporaries like The Shins and Band of Horses, while sounding nearly unrecognizable next to the band they were on Ask Me Tomorrow.