ReView: Mojave Phone Booth – Blood Doctor Volume One
Mojave Phone Booth
Album: Blood Doctor Volume One
Category: Electro / Industrial / Rock
Label: Label 51 Recordings
Release Date: 2025-06-27
Author: Ilker Yücel (Ilker81x)
After the almost gargantuan art rock of the band’s last album, Mojave Phone Booth has honed things down to a more concise, and thus more focused effort with Blood Doctor Volume One. Given the husband-and-wife duo’s past history in Snake River Conspiracy, the traces of that late ‘90s/early ‘00s alt. rock songwriting style is embedded in the band’s DNA, most notably in Tobey Torres-Doran’s serpentine vocals. Throughout the album, she vacillates from alluring and accessible melodies to belligerently whispered rasps to impassioned howls with an effortless bravado that is readily matched by the gritty and abrasive textures of Mitchell J. Doran’s instrumentation. This is most notable on songs like “Mercury Dime” and “Replica” with their driving basslines and scrapes of unrelenting feedback, the hazy noir vibes of booming drumbeats and spacious synth leads on “Ceramic,” the arresting throbs and screeching distortions leading to a harmonious chorus on “Capsule Change,” and especially “Calux,” whose lithe verses give rise to fierce screams in the chorus that can’t help but remind one of the best moments of Nine Inch Nails. The same can be said for the concluding “Trace Elements,” whose breakneck rhythms and electronic riffs bear a likeness to “Wish,” the initial growl of the guitar solo standing out as one of the album’s sharpest moments. “Low” offers the most, shall we say, “radio-friendly” track with Torres’ voice swimming in melodious alt. pop allure amid a sea of slick guitars and strident bass, contrasting with the nightmarish grind and grime of the offbeat staccato thrust in the instrumental “My Father’s House.” The trashy and thrashy sound of Blood Doctor Volume One is for sure an assault on the ears, seemingly designed with ill intent to test the listener’s noise threshold – samples drenched in overdrive, guitars and synths mangled to the point of being indistinguishable. Yet, the vocals and basslines keep Mojave Phone Booth’s sound anchored, allowing the hooks and catchy songwriting to sneak through the clamor, making it a rather solid industrial/rock album.
Track list:
- Dracula Poster
- Replica
- Capsule Change
- Unrelated
- Low
- Ceramic
- My Father’s House
- Calux
- Mercury Dime
- Trace Elements
Mojave Phone Booth
Website, Bandcamp, BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube
Label 51 Recordings
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https://regenmag.com/reviews/review-mojave-phone-booth-blood-doctor-volume-one/