DJ Set feels like your parents' old shag carpet and sticky leather couches in the summer, and tastes sweet like Zooper Doopers and friendship.
It’s a charming, high fidelity release from nine-piece Naarm band Mouseatouille, an album that lures you in with its sensitive twee arrangements and holds you tight with its nostalgic exploration of youth. It oscillates between dainty folk rock and grungey garage noise pop – a multiplicity only friends could make.
The first track, ‘Tom’s Lament’, sets the tone for the rest of the album. Although lyricless, it introduces the melancholic, child-like quietness that carries through the rest of the project. It’s these moments of reflection within DJ Set that strike you most, like a smell that reminds you of a specific day in the summer of 2011. Throughout the entirety of the project, intimate vocals dance perfectly with instrumentation, a pleasant atmosphere filled with lush, sunny moments.
DJ Set is slow and delicate when it has to be, and builds to joyfully noisy grunge breakthroughs, the listener getting the same emotional release as the band themselves as the album progresses. Each moment brims with charm and emotion, inevitably overflowing into orchestral crescendos, or complete breakdown into a dissonant screech. ‘Dogshow’ is where this louder, noisier side of the band shines, tearing through the meticulously crafted pop of it all to unleash something truly raw and real: the feeling of elation that comes with growing up and doing things you love.
DJ Set is what you get when nine musicians have some fun together. It's an album of joy, togetherness, collaboration and friendship. Teeming with nostalgia and quiet simplicity, it reminds us of the small beauties of youth and growing up.
Words by Ella Avni