Mutating Meltdown– “Fantasy” b/w “Six Minutes Underground” – M’lady

The venerable Veronica was on my porch, walked into my living room, lifted up a painting we had on the wall, and declared “I can’t believe it’s still fucking here!” A few months before, when her band Mutating Meltdown played in my kitchen, she put a boy’s skin-mag behind a painting assuming we cleaned our walls I guess? It didn’t really make that much sense, but it’s an anecdote that seems to fit with this single.
The two songs on this single have vastly different vibes, but they maintain the same feeling. The single, “Fantasy”, is a slow moving, whisper vocals song with a keyboard lead over punk drumming. It’s jerky enough that it wouldn’t have been out of place with some of the 90’s west coast keyboard happenings, but I think it’s a much more impressive output than any of that. Veronica’s vocals are eerie and the “Fantasay” chorus is perfect. A saxophone erupts from the song and plays a solo that changes the song, but when it leaves you have female/male vocals singing in tandem till the end. Not a ripping song, but it grows on you.
The other side is the very upbeat “Six Minutes Underground”. The verses are sung in Spanish while the chorus is yelled in English. It’s a punker song and it’s more how I remember this band sounding live. The tempo change at the end of the song feels a little bit forced, but it’s a head-bobber for sure so I’ll let them get away with it as an outro. There are definite nods to some of the more proto punk female groups of the 60’s, but I doubt there really isn’t any painful pulls at trying to sound like the Shang-ri-blahs or Haram or anything like that. It’s just good music with keyboards and drums (and that one saxophone part).