- The little hand of the faithful is the unassumingly new solo project of Australian DIY music pioneer Mitch Jones, best known as a founding member and vocalist of long-running cult band Scattered Order, and co-founder of the label M Squared. Having taken a year off from his duties in Scattered Order, who only last year released their sixteenth full-length record, A suitcase full of snow globes, you shouldn't let yourself be surprised that is with you leaps off from a very similar premise as recent Scattered Order material.
Devoid of Jones’ memorable, early-Scattered Order vocals, and broadly comprised of abstract instrumental pieces that flirt with a propulsive blend of dub techno, break-beats, synthesizer nonsense, digitised drones, vocal samples and guitar noise, the frantic and unpredictable undulations at times feel distinctly introspective and contemplative. The teddy bear silhouetted against a colourful sunset on the cover provides some clue to a more personal texture, along with gentler tracks like the piano and glitch-laden Dark and strangely pale.
The little hand of the faithful is, contrastingly, imbued more widely with a heavy industrial techno edge that rears its ugly head from the get go, on opener Polish Trucker Lollies saw-wave synths gurgle under a cavalcade of heavy industrial beats, crashing around a disjointed trumpeting fanfare, while another meandering high-filtered synth bounces around. The fanfare fizzles in and out, losing footing under the pounding beats that splash on the swamp of looping grooves, occasionally it's reminiscent of gothic industrial techno of bands like Marilyn Manson.
Ooh my fictional deity initially focuses on some gothic sounding samples of bells and phonograph drum samples, along with synths that sound like the distant croak of crows, before moving towards a subdued arrangement of odd synth sounds and aged vocal samples. The music points towards the ephemeral experience of sound and the various ways we interact with and access it. The eclectic mix of styles and reference points forms something of a distorted séance to experiences of music of the past, evoking the ghosts of crackling oldies records, tape experimentation and cassette culture, and the odd infinite of early internet tracker music, especially on tracks like Radio chatter continues under music.
A separate, but familiar theme of lower-class prat culture permeates the included bonus tracks. Perhaps best saved for die-hard fans, this is more like a collection of Jones' led Scattered Order offcuts than the opportunity for something boldly new. . Providing a more familiar style of subdued dub rhythms, sirenic synths and pronounced sampling. And Billions Dub samples Donald Trump or a sound-alike repeating the titular line over a very Scattered Order sounding instrumental. Those looking for a heretofore unheralded Mitch Jones solo project burst of creativity might start to feel cheated, but that would be the wrong approach to take. There's quite a lot to like and much that shouldn’t be overlooked, taking in an odd collection of familiar sounds in The little hand of the faithful.
- Jaden Gallagher.