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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ana Muhi and Sven “Missu” Missulis of MIGHT

Posted in Questionnaire on March 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

might

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ana Muhi and Sven “Missu” Missulis of MIGHT

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Ana: I decided to allow myself the luxury of doing what I love. Sounds cheesy, but that’s the way it is. Making music is a self-determined space for me. It’s a way to give kind of shape to my woolly thoughts. And as a matter of course I wanted to be loud.

Sven: My father had a guitar on which he played maybe once in every six months or less and as a kid I liked sitting beside him and listen. Later, when I was 14 years old, some of my friends had instruments and we started a punk band. That was the time when I began to play the guitar. 2,5 months later we had our first concert. You can imagine how it sounded. Luckily it was filmed. The guy who filmed that concert back in 1991 uploaded it on YouTube a few years ago.

Describe your first musical memory.

Sven: One of my first musical memory as a small child is sitting with our little dog Snoopy on the backseat of my mom’s Citroen 2CV listening to a best of ABBA tape while she was driving us three somewhere. We have done that very often and in my memories it is always summer.

Ana: I was hanging around with my little sister on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We had some of the best pancakes ever and listened to a radio show. I recorded our beloved songs on audio tapes and we sang perfectly out of tune in kiddy fantasy English.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Ana: One of the first concerts from our former band was in a very close and airless underground vault. A wonderful location, but I must have fainted for a few seconds, after my scream split the air. It was a sort of sweaty full-body-mission, I don’t want to miss.

Sven: There are so many good musical memories in my life. It is not easy to chose just one. At the age of 11 or 12 I combed through my parents vinyl collection and discovered “The Wall” by Pink Floyd. That was a massive experience.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Sven: When I realized that I am really getting old.

Ana: It’s hard to keep hope that stupid egomaniacs will not rule the world. The abuse of power from megalomaniac narcissists makes me sick.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Ana: Artistic progression leads to confrontation with yourself in your surrounding world. It’s a naked encounter with truth. Sometimes painful, but always the opposite from death.

Sven: I would say it is a constant changing, a little less here, a little more there, something new, another thing is through. I think it does not lead anywhere, it just changes the direction sometimes.

How do you define success?

Sven: Being satisfied.

Ana: To leave the competition by your own choice, just to go ahead with yourself.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Ana: Hate.

Sven: I’d thought about this question for a while and of course there are things I wish I have not seen, like destroyed nature f.e., but if I think in this direction there is nothing that I wish I have not seen, because even if I haven’t seen it, it would happen. So it is important to see what is happening to act the right way.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Sven: The third MIGHT album.

Ana: Maybe I’ll have the patience to write something longer than a song once. When I was a child I loved to write theatre plays and the first pages for novels. But I always ripped it to pieces and I still do so today.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Ana: Art should work up the courage we lose in our daily routines.

Sven: Art connects people around the world.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Sven: Spring and summer.

Ana: I’m looking forward to embrace my 80-year-old dad and my beloved old life at all. Nothing is to take for granted and I’m thankful to join the game for a while.

http://www.might.earth
https://might.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/might.earth

https://www.instagram.com/exileonmainstreamofficial/
http://www.mainstreamrecords.de

Might, Abyss (2022)

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Review & Album Premiere: Might, Abyss

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on August 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

MIGHT (photo by Ana Muhi)

Hanover, Germany, two-piece Might will release their second full-length, Abyss, on Friday, Aug. 26. It is their sophomore outing to be issued by respected purveyor Exile on Mainstream behind their 2020 self-titled debut (review here) and bears the marks of a purposeful creative progression, as Ana Muhi and Sven “Missu” Missulis steadily work themselves into a varied succession of genres across the included 11 songs/38 minutes, from the piano-into-rumbling-post-doom of the intro “Naked Light” and the tense chug and groove of the subsequent “Lost,” trading vocals already in refuse-to-make-it-a-pattern fashion and continuing through the semi-title-track “Abysses” with a dug-in atmospheric grunge before “Circles” breaks out the pop-punk to start a procession of three two-and-a-half-minute cuts, the subsequent “Who’s Ahead” and “Tightrope Walk” delving between modern post-Jarboe-ist piano avant — one might think of Lingua Ignota, but that’s only part of it — and acoustic contemplation, respectively.

Presumably that’s side A of Abyss, and there are a few lessons to be gleaned from it. First, Might are a band suited to any and all expanded definitions of what’s ‘heavy.’ That is, while “Naked Light,” “Lost” and “Abysses” might serve as early representation for distorted tones and harder-hitting ideologies, mourning what’s lost in environment and innocence, trying to find some way through if not out. The answer to that, of course, is the music itself is the way out, but one still has to write the songs, which obviously Might do or you and I wouldn’t be sitting down having this nice chat about them. But after this initial sweep comes the swap-swap-swap of “Circles,” “Who’s Ahead” — the lyrics to this are likewise minimal and evocative; that line about changing an activation code; what a sense of place and feeling and time conveyed through such a mundane image; where are they when this is happening, I wonder; who’s picking those dead flowers at the side of the road?; where are they going? — and the centerpiece “Tightrope Walk,” which taps into indie folk with a showcase for Muhi‘s vocals in less theatrical form than “Who’s Ahead” just before while remaining no less expressive. And it’s not that the ‘other stuff’ is richer somehow than the ‘heavier stuff’ — let me be clear: it isn’t — but that’s precisely the point. Wherever Might go on Abyss sound-wise is secondary to the weight of intention and conveyance that comes through in the material. The second lesson, then, is that Might are going to do whatever they feel and no less. Righteous.

“How Sad a Fate” repeats obscure lines around ranging tones and a looming sense of threat, is somehow punk in its point of view but not at all in the delivery, which moves in its later reaches into as genuine a lurch as Might have yet produced. But their attentions don’t stay in one place too long, ever, on Abyss, and “Shrine” picks up directly to answer the punk waiting to burst out in the song before with a verse led by Missulis and turns into guttural intensity for just a moment before it spaces out and thrusts into extreme metal, turning again to its rolling verse, like Might decided to find out what might’ve happened if Darkthrone went to an art school taught by Sonic Youth. Oh and the song’s also under three minutes long. So yes, there’s a fair amount packed in there. But as ever, Might carry it through with a smoothness that seems counterintuitive to their willing lack of precision — Abyss flows despite its stylistic complexities and part of that stems from the organic, playing-live (though it’s impossible with just the two of them and the amount of instruments they use; see the videos below with a projected Missulis on drums) feel of the songs; it’s not that they’re not tight, they’re just not tight-assed — and which speaks to their history together, personal as well as their time together in Deamon’s Child, whose dissolution in 2020 led to the starting of this newer outfit.

The subsequent “Lucky Me” picks up on the brutal letting-loose of “Shrine” before it and is grander in the unfolding. It, “How Sad a Fate” and “Abysses” are the only pieces that run longer than either side of 2.5-3.5 minutes, and they provide landmarks throughout, but “Lucky Me” is the nastiest of the bunch, with a forward stomp of kick drum and snare behind sharp riffing and vocal barks from Muhi initially that move into uptempo-but-still-weighted chugs and twists before a drop at the midsection recalls the ambience from which the song burst forth without actually bringing it back, instead exploring an open field of remaining-anxious pastoralia before resuming its relative onslaught. One last recitation of the title, and birdsong provides a transition into the returned piano balladry of “Dear Life” in a purposeful-seeming resonant echo of “Who’s Ahead” and before capping with a wash of nasty noise, “Holy Wars” rings out a kind of longing in its guitar and Missulis‘ vocals, a kind of heavy-indie vibe persisting into the heavier movement that follows, which in turn unfurls into the aforementioned some-say-fire-some-say-ice-we-say-feedback ending of the record, which feels very much like the punctuation at the end of the sentence of the proceedings in their entirety.

Would it be a surprise to call Abyss immersive? I mean, they titled the album Abyss. In any case, one can’t and won’t argue with either their mournful, angry, curious or disappointed points of view here, as well as the varied means through which those are brought to bear. This band isn’t going to be for everybody and they’re not trying to be. But maybe they’re for you, and I know of one sure way to find out.

Accordingly, enjoy:

Abyss will be released through Exile On Mainstream on August 26th, pressed on LP and CD and available on all digital services. Find preorders HERE: https://shop.mainstreamrecords.de/product/eom103

Ana Muhi on Abyss:

“I am grateful that we have the chance to release our new album called Abyss. This world is a beautiful place. But we’re all standing on the edge of an abyss. Human rights violations, racism, climate change. It’s an individual decision not to be part of that hate. Everyone can contribute to stop this absolute madness. That’s what it’s all about. Music is a way to get in touch and jump over that damned fucking abyss. At least to have a blast before we die in pain.”

Sven Missullis on Abyss:

“We are very happy to work again with Exile On Mainstream and our good friend Andreas. For us it was never a question, and it may not have been for him either, because he had not heard a single tone until we sent the finished master for pressing. Using the artwork was a dream come true, especially for me. I am a huge fan of Zdzisław Beksiński. I dreamed about using his painting – the one we used for our album – and showed it to Ana. She also fell in love with it. So, I got in contact with the Historical Museum in Sanok which owns the rights of all works of Beksiński, who sadly was murdered in 2005. The director of the museum, Jarosław Serafin, is a very nice person. He gave us the license for using the painting. Bam!

“The recording process was intense but also stress-free, which doesn’t mean there was no chaos, but we have our own studio and so time doesn’t matter. We can record whenever we want and how long we want. In the middle of the recording process there were these Exile On Mainstream Roadshows with Confusion Master, Gaffa Ghandi, and MIGHT. At that point we didn’t want to play any of the new songs live, so we had to rehearse our first album in the middle of recording a new album. That was a bit strange but also refreshing and we made a two-week break from the studio. Besides the release, I am very much looking forward to the next shows in September where we will play those new songs for the very first time.”

MIGHT’s Abyss was entirely recorded, mixed, and mastered by the band. The album’s cover is fitted with a 1976 oil painting by Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński. The impression of the painting, as oppressive as it may seem at first glance, nevertheless radiates a warming confidence and security. This makes the image a fantastic visualization of MIGHT’s music.

Delicate piano sounds are being buried under thick, viscous lava of distorted guitars and a mean bass. Hovering above it, Ana’s subtle, yet haunting voice connects tragedy with hope in a world gone haywire. Or seems like it. Sometimes she must scream. MIGHT is a must-hear band for fans of Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle, Jarboe, Dolch, Treedeon, Neurosis, Ides Of Gemini, and Black Mare.

MIGHT Live:
9/02/2022 KuFa – Braunschweig, DE
9/09/2022 South Of Mainstream Festival – Berlin, DE
11/05/2022 – Bei Chez Heinz – Hannover, DE

Might, “How Sad a Fate” official video

Might, “Shrine” official video

Might website

Might on Bandcamp

Might on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream on Instagram

Exile on Mainstream website

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Might to Release Abyss Aug. 26; Album Details & Teaser Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

German spousal duo MightAna Muhi on bass, vocals, keys, and Sven Missullis on drums, guitar and more vocals — made their self-titled debut (review here) in 2020 through Exile on Mainstream, surfacing after a split of their former, more punk-leaning trio Deamon’s Child. There’s a teaser that came in with the press release below that runs all of — wait for it — 13 seconds, and somewhat incredibly, it’s actually a pretty solid tease. Atmospheric and volatile, it may not give you as much of an idea of what’s coming as, say, a whole track, but it’s got me intrigued at least.

Plus, theirs was a first album that seemed like they could go anywhere from it, so to read below that maybe that’s how it’s happening is kind of exciting. Like damn near everything Andreas Kohl puts out on Exile on Mainstream, I feel like you can approach without knowing exactly what’s up and still find something satisfying when you get there.

All of which I guess is to say I already put in the request to stream the album the day before it comes out. And I didn’t do it on the strength of the artwork alone, but I could’ve.

From the PR wire:

MIGHT Abyss

MIGHT: German Doom/Post-Rock Duo To Release Second LP, Abyss, Through Exile On Mainstream In August; Cover Art, Track Listing, Teaser, And More Posted

Exile On Mainstream presents Abyss, the second album from Hanover, Germany-based atmospheric doom/post-rock duo MIGHT, confirming the album for late August release, and issuing its cover art, track listing, a teaser, and more.

Founded in January 2020 by Ana Muhi (vocals, bass, piano) and Sven Missullis (vocals, guitar, drums), MIGHT’s eponymous debut LP was recorded in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the album introducing the band’s blend of elements from various musical genres fused in their very own intoxicating, organic sound. Between instrumental frenzy and gentle, fragile acoustic parts, an exchange takes place that musically brings together different genres: black metal, sludge, doom, post-rock, shoegaze. The whole thing happens without any showmanship, loud and quiet in perfect complement, the power of love as an answer to life’s questions. As large as the steps may seem at times, they always remain comprehensible. The common thread consists of the consistent and honest handwriting of the two – an uncompromising couple.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, MIGHT could not play live as much as they wanted to in support of the debut LP, but they have made waves with some very special performances over the past year or more. Highlights so far include the 2021 Roadburn Redux Festival appearance, where MIGHT played their second concert ever, the 2022 Exile On Mainstream Roadshows, as well as support for Wiegedood and the 2022 Rotormania Festival appearance. Live, the couple takes a unique approach, with Missullis performing drums while broadcasting video projections of him also performing the guitar parts, doubling his appearance, and thus becoming a trio.

MIGHT’s Abyss was entirely recorded, mixed, and mastered by the band. The album’s cover is fitted with a 1976 oil painting by Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński (February 24, 1929 – February 21, 2005). The impression of the painting, as oppressive as it may seem at first glance, nevertheless radiates a warming confidence and security. This makes the image a fantastic visualization of MIGHT’s music.

Delicate piano sounds are being buried under thick, viscous lava of distorted guitars and a mean bass. Hovering above it, Ana’s subtle, yet haunting voice connects tragedy with hope in a world gone haywire. Or seems like it. Sometimes she must scream.

Abyss will be released through Exile On Mainstream on August 26th, pressed on LP and CD and available on all digital services. Fans of Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle, Jarboe, Dolch, Treedeon, Neurosis, Ides Of Gemini, and Black Mare should not pass MIGHT by.

Abyss Track Listing:
1. Naked Light
2. Lost
3. Abysses
4. Circles
5. Who’s Ahead
6. Tightrope Walk
7. How Sad A Fate
8. Shrine
9. Lucky Me
10. Dear Life
11. Holy Wars

MIGHT Live:
9/09/2022 South Of Mainstream Festival – Berlin, DE
11/05/2022 – Bei Chez Heinz – Hanover, DE

http://www.might.earth
https://might.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/might.earth

https://www.instagram.com/exileonmainstreamofficial/
http://www.mainstreamrecords.de

Might, Abyss Teaser

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The Obelisk Radio Add of the Week: Neptune’s Inferno, Abyss

Posted in Radio on April 30th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

If you like your sludge with more than a touch of the inhumane, Long Island resident Vincent Napolitano has got six songs and a name-your-price download with your name on them. Napolitano is the sole member of and driving force behind Neptune’s Inferno, whose debut long-player, Abyss, is out now through Death Valley Records. The album is a collection of thick, bludgeoning, misanthropic riffs, played slow and set to thunderous-sounding drum programming as a bed for Napolitano‘s layers of throat-ripping growls and screams. If nothing else, the 43-minute outing has the right title, since by the time the ultra-lumbering “Chiropteris” storms into its second half, you long since feel like you’ve been pulled down a well.

The largesse of sound is a big part of the album’s success. With a recording produced by Bleach Eater guitarist/vocalist Don Millard and engineered by Joe Cincotta at Full Force Studio, Napolitano pushes beyond one-man-project resonance and well into a full-band appeal. There are moments where the cymbal sounds are clearly programmed — the “hi-hat” in “Night Fever” and the “ride” in “Sonic Invasion” come to mind — but it’s not like Abyss is otherwise going for such a natural, accessible feel. Extremity is the purpose, and if there are flourishes of industrial at work in some of the material, that doesn’t necessarily detract from the album’s overall affect. “Vision Spell” sets a steady march and offers few frills around its riffing, screaming, lumbering approach, but the song’s victory is in the lack of restraint in its vomitous crawl. One does not get hit in the head with hammer and marvel at the nuance.

An 11:38 capstone arrives in “Frost Trails under the Blackened Sun,” feeding back into one last gleefully-repugnant plod. It finishes with the onset of gritty machine-noise drone, but it’s the march that makes the song a standout more than anything, a break around six and a half minutes in bridging the gap basically between the two songs it otherwise might’ve been. Whether it’s bands like Grime, or Wizard’s Beard or Morbid Wizard, Fistula or any of their depraved ilk, the world is not short on extreme sludge, and Napolitano has his work cut out for him in finding a niche for the massive tones he emits on Abyss, but especially for a first album, the clarity of intent served up here feels like forewarning of cruelties yet to come.

Hear Abyss now as part of the 24/7 stream of The Obelisk Radio, and get a sampling of the album via the player below, snagged from the Neptune’s Inferno Bandcamp:

Neptune’s Inferno, Abyss (2014)

Neptune’s Inferno on Thee Facebooks

Death Valley Records on Thee Facebooks

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