Methyl Ethel
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Methyl Ethel

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“There’s definitely something wholly satisfying in listening to an album in its entirety,” he says, “especially something that rewards the listener who begins it and finishes it.”

Methyl Ethel’s debut LP, Oh Inhuman Spectacle, gives credence to Webb’s claim. Released in early June, the 12-track release is a holistic entity; melodically immediate and curiously progressive, featuring unusual textures, structural deviation, weird time signatures, and intriguing lyrical details.

“When the overarching view, the idea of the album as a whole, takes place – where I get an order or flow of things – that’s when the album begins its existence,” Webb says. “From the microcosm to the macrocosm, I like everything to have a loose dramatic structure. That’s the way I think of things.”

Along the way, Oh Inhuman Spectacle gives a nod to the likes of Air, Animal Collective, Connan Mockasin, Ariel Pink and Brian Eno. That said, as a whole, it’s difficult to think of many contemporary records that it closely mirrors.

“The album started off with me writing on a Fender Rhodes piano with electronic drum beats just put on the top,” Webb says. “I ended up steering away from that – it didn’t feel true to me, or it was distracting from the songs. I was intending to make it feel honest and not like I was trying to make it fit into anything. I just wanted to allow the songs to get across to the listener, rather than have number one singles on the radio.”

While Methyl Ethel are officially a three-piece band, the album was almost entirely created by Webb, which permitted him total freedom to home in on his over-arching vision. “Chris [Wright, drums] and I did the final mix of it and he recorded some percussion stuff,” he says. “And Thom [Stewart, bass] played some keys on Artificial Limb. But I pretty much recorded everything and played it all. That sounds a bit Orson Welles doesn’t it?”

Several tracks, including singles Twilight Driving and Rogues, and the late-album highlight Artificial Limb, reveal Webb’s Barrett-like aptitude for dressing off-kilter arrangements with instantly pleasing melodies. Meanwhile, from a structural and textural point of view, he never gives in to the temptations of convention.

“I think my approach is to just skew things slightly,” he says. “I was thinking recently about growing up and going on long car rides with my parents, listening to cassette tapes of whatever music they were into – ones that had slightly melted in the car, so everything was a little bit warped. That seems to feel the most nostalgic and the most familiar to me. In a strange way, texturally I like to fuck with things a bit to make it sound more familiar to me.”

Oh Inhuman Spectacle was recorded in Webb’s home studio, and it dips into a range of different production flavours. For instance, Rogues and To Swim have a muted cassette tape quality; Twilight Driving and Obscura are presented in lucid and relatively pristine detail; and the likes of Depth Perception and Unbalancing Act flaunt a reverb-drenched electronic edge.

“First and foremost my approach is just using the tools that I have on hand,” Webb says. “So I like to marry the analogue and the digital, just because I don’t have a million dollar studio to record things perfectly. It’s sort of just trying to get the right textures that sound right for the song. So for example, drums on a couple of songs have gone back and forth between digital and analogue. It’s not a choice of using tape because it’s a cool thing to do or something.”

Throughout Oh Inhuman Spectacle, Webb crucially ensures his vocals don’t get lost. Even when swimming in reverb, the melodies remain distinct, and more often than not, the lyrics can be easily deciphered.

“One of the hardest things, especially when you’re recording yourself, is to be able to listen back to a song and enjoy it outside of yourself,” Webb says. “So if I were to bury the vocals, it would just indicate that I’m hiding away from it. But I think that the lyric is just as important as anything else. It definitely needs to be there and be heard.”

Webb mightn’t have a world class studio at hand, but his wily manoeuvring has made for an excellent headphone album. Yet, although Oh Inhuman Spectacle is intended to be an immersive experience, it’s not entirely removed from reality.

“[As a listener] I can engage fully with an album when I am doing something to accompany the album, whether it be driving or washing dishes or housework,” Webb says. “That’s the feel of the album as well – I like to put in ambient recordings of me walking around in a room somewhere to hint at the fact that these songs exist in the world, not just on the stereo.”

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY