Infinite Shuffle

When it comes to Mute Math, it’s like the chicken and the egg — did I see them or hear them first. What I do know for sure is that my most vivid memory of them is when I won tickets from a local radio station and saw them live at the since-closed Starr Hill venue in Charlottesville, Va., in 2006.

I didn’t know much about the band, but I was immediately enthralled by them, especially lead singer Paul Meany, who busted out a keytar and looked kinda like Thomas Ian Nicholas.

Anyways, I really dug their sound and made sure to purchase their self-titled debut LP. I would occasionally hear a couple songs off that album being played on the radio, including “Chaos” and “Break the Same”. And the group seemed to gain a bit of fame when their awesome video for “Typical” got a lot of airplay.

But then I kinda lost track of them for a while. Aside from one of their songs occasionally popping up on my iTunes, I hadn’t given them much thought the last few years.

Until earlier this week. That’s when, for some reason, I looked up Mute Math and saw that they released a new LP last fall.

On Armistice, their sound has definitely evolved, but the key components are still there — that signature mix of rock, pop, jazz and electronica.

I can’t really think of a better way to describe Mute Math’s sound. So I’ll let Amazon do it for me …

Taking cues from several decades of alternative rock, the New Orleans-based quartet Mute Math (also known as MUTEMATH and MuteMath) fuses together New Order’s synth-dance epics, the Stone Roses’ shambling shuffle, Radiohead’s spiky chilliness, Air’s serene ambient pop, and the booming vocals of mainstream pop/rock.

I’m always interested to see what kind of bands Amazon will suggest I look into based on the band I’ve searched for. But when it comes to Mute Math, none of the ones mentioned seem like accurate comparisons. The closest ones might be Keane and Snow Patrol, but not really.

If I had to compare Mute Math to anyone, I’d say they’re a more-electronica version of Gomez.

But you should probably judge for yourself. Here are their MySpace page and their official website.

And here’s one of my favorite tracks off their self-titled LP …

Mute Math – Chaos