7/10
There’s a rare calm that descends when music doesn’t rush to fill every corner. And mUmbo’s new three-track suite 'When It Was Quiet' thrives in that space. It’s a release built on subtle shifts of colour, half-spoken emotions, and the quiet electricity that lives between three artists working entirely on feeling.
A cross-continental collaboration between Doug MacGowan (guitars/bass), Emma Semple (vocals/strings), and Antonio Dalé (drums/percussion), mUmbo construct their world like painters trading canvases as sketches are sent back and forth between the UK and Italy, each new layer gently nudging the songs somewhere unexpected. It’s a process that lends the EP its drifting, dreamlike character.
The group’s shared love for mood-driven artistry shines through immediately. You can sense the echoes of Cocteau Twins’ otherworldliness, the dusky melancholy of Mazzy Star, the tactile guitar work of Johnny Marr and Ry Cooder, but mUmbo filter these influences through their own lens, prioritising atmosphere over imitation.
The opener 'You Can Do What You Want To' plays like a slow-motion film scene. Semple’s voice moves with a storyteller’s clarity while MacGowan’s guitar lines open the horizon around her. It’s the most narrative piece here, a moment of stillness framed like a long exhale.
By contrast, 'You Know the Song' slips into something more impressionistic. Viola and guitar melt into each other, blurring melody and texture until you’re not sure which instrument is speaking. While 'Worm Moon' leans further into that ambiguity, offering a nocturnal haze where rhythm and harmony float like lanterns over water.
But what ultimately makes 'When It Was Quiet' so compelling is its restraint. mUmbo aren’t interested in over-explaining or chasing big crescendos. Instead, they offer songs that observe rather than declare, that feel both close-up and slightly out of reach. It’s music that sits comfortably in the liminal between dreaming and waking, and between remembering and imagining.
In a world saturated with noise, 'When It Was Quiet' is a set of songs that breathe, beckon, and leave a lasting impression. mUmbo are crafting moments here. And these moments glow.
