Songs and Socials
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Consisting of guitarist Taegan, keyboard player James, vocalist/bassist Tiago and percussionist Jake, the quartet from Norwich, UK are a staple of the local scene. Named after the belgian bar where they gig, Mengelmoes (a flemish word for 'mish-mash') bend and break genres as quickly as their front-man takes to strut across the stage. Mixing together jazz, funk, rock, pop, reggae, latin (to name a few), the four songwriters pride themselves on fusing their idiosyncrasies, allowing for their trademark energetic live shows and thought provoking songwriting. Having recorded and toured in Belgium twice (with airtime on Belgian radio), the band have left an imprint with their memorable performances at festivals and venues such as Epic Studios, The Waterfront, Norwich Arts Centre, The Lord Mayors Procession, The Brickmakers, Trunchonbury, Tribe Festival and many more. Mona Bee writes on their performance at Rocket from the East:
A soft-spoken introduction throws the audience off-guard:
“You probably don’t know what we’re called,” says the frontman. “People have a lot of trouble pronouncing our name. Mango Juice. Mangled Noise. Men Kelly Mo. Mango. Moes. But anyway – to clear it all up – we are: mmmmMEH-EH-EH-eh-EH-EH-MEN-GHEL-MOO-OOOH-OOHSE!”. He belts out their name over a theatrical blast of Phantom of the Opera proportions – Mars Voltan/Karmic Juggernauty voice like a wailing saxophone until the quiet trickle of keys returns him to speech. The crowd is stunned. There wasn’t a transition between song and speech.
“Love the reverb. That’s lovely,” he says, before singing again. This time it’s Freddie Mercurial and Michael Jacksonian. “I know it can’t be this easy / I know I haven’t settled down / But there is nothing suspicious going down!” Suddenly everything goes quiet. “Oh, look at all your bewildered faces,” he notes.
It gets even more bewildering when the band erupts like a confetti popper – spraying the audience with modulating jazz-infused funky grooves, math-rock rhythms, fluid, proggy tempos, and bold textures – including the xylophone, harpsichord, organ and clavinet tones of two keyboards (as a keyboardist myself, I was chuffed to see a keyboard-driven oom-pa beat in the last song as we are often swept to the side of the action). There is scatting. There is shredding. And within the contest itself, a sub-contest ensues between members of the band – who each showcase their abilities in solo sections I later learn to be improvisational.
Their stage presence is engaging and as lively as their sound. Even keyboardist and bassist, notoriously stereotyped to be the less energetic members of bands, are showmen – moonwalking across the stage or else lying down and kicking like an upturned beetle.