Mystic Knights - “Count”
Photo by @victoriasmithphoto
Mystic Knights, from Australia and the USA, shake everything in their path with the high-octane, garage-rock revival track, “Count.”
Chris Cester, metronomic drummer and driving force behind rock band Jet, takes centre stage with Mystic Knights. The band, named by close friend– and no doubt soon to be known as “Sir” Noel Gallagher– packs a punch that will turn the heads of anyone in rock royalty.
Formed around a defiant, biting, gnarly guitar riff, a disdain for the music industry’s penchant for hit singles and trust in pure gut instinct, “Count” is their third rip-roaring single. The song electrifies with a relentless, punkish drum beat reminiscent of The Hives’ aggressive swagger. This is pure relentless gunfire! But this is a track that cannot be pinned down, with a hurricane of influences crammed into its snappy two-minute runtime. The wild electric guitars and prowling bass for instance are a collision of The Black Keys, ZZ Top and The Stooges to name but a few. The bands chemistry is palpable, raw, wide-eyed. You can picture these guys tearing up a stage or wiping up an audience into a living, breathing storm of energy.
The vocal on this track cuts through the chaos with the precision of a razor blade. It is sneer, howl and charm all wrapped up into something that feels utterly alive and dangerously so. With the assistance of a few expletives, you are only pulled further into the storm. This is a performance that demands total surrender. It is also lush hearing the little spoken phrases like “champagne,” which bring to mind the biting, satirical edge of “Have A Cigar” by Pink Floyd.