Hear Austrian Psych Band Mother’s Cake Bring ‘Cyberfunk!’ on New Album

When they came to India early last year in February to perform at SulaFest in Nashik as well as Bengaluru, Austrian rock trio Mother’s Cake recount an “amazing, fascinating and crazy friendly” time. In the words of drummer Jan Haussels, they were “abusing the room service as the selection of curries and chicken dishes was just too damn good not to do so.”

Once on stage at the wine and music festival, Haussels recalls that to this day, he can’t forget some of the reactions they received. “The funny thing was the look a little kid gave me, that stood in front of me during the festival. For a moment I thought I’m from the moon,” the drummer says over email.

Given their new album Cyberfunk!, it’s not difficult to picture Haussels, vocalist-guitarist Yves Krismer and bassist Benedikt Trenkwalder being from the moon; the 12-track, 45-minute record that follows up 2017’s No Rhyme No Reason is a heady concoction of influences across eras and styles all stirred into one frothing pot of psychedelic music.

Watch the video for “Crystals in the Sky” below. 

Glued together by sounds of a tape deck changing sides and other associated sonic elements, Haussels notes that Cyberfunk! is meant to be a mixtape. He explains, “On the artwork you see this big-eyed fella handing over the ‘holy grail’ to our character. Those little snippets you hear are what’s left over of recordings that had been on that tape beforehand. We tried to trigger some nostalgia for all those Generation Y people who still know what it means to create a mixtape of your own.”

Mother’s Cake are clearly amongst the most dependable mixtape creators in a sense, considering Cyberfunk! jumps from mammoth metal action (“Toxic Brother”) to cheeky funk (“Hit on Your Girl”) to songs like “Lonely Rider,” which is seemingly informed by indie rock bands like Arctic Monkeys. Haussels adds, “I think the entirety of the album is supposed to be surprising as we don’t stick to a theme. There is funk, there are heavy parts but then also songs that aren’t afraid of being romantic or a bit cheesy.”

They turn up with Led Zeppelin-meets-The Mars Volta passages on “Crystals in the Sky,” punk and funk riff attacks on “I’m Your President,” Beatles-leaning hippy power on “Love Your Smell” and downright weird electronic tripping on “Cybernova.” There’s cheeky funk on “Hit on Your Girl” as well as noisy psych (“Gloria” and “Desire”) and angry Rage Against the Machine-style riffs on “The Beetle.” Cyberfunk! all melds together in the heady mix that’s “The Operator,” an apt centerpiece at about five and a half minutes.

Haussels says they took their time with this record, coming up with a pool of ideas via jamming and recording sessions. “Yves picked his cherries and combined it with new ideas that came to his mind during this process. Then we started all over again, cut the fat and made sure we liked what was left. For our very last sessions we tried to add what was missing as in moods or tempo,” the drummer explains.

With touring opening up in Europe, Mother’s Cake were scheduled to hit the road in November but are now heading out on a launch tour in March 2021, being their optimistic selves. Haussels mentions he feels a bit rusty but in the meantime, they’ve performed smaller capacity acoustic shows to promote the record. They’re aware that planning is not really working too well during the pandemic but the drummer adds, “Anything else is in the stars.”

Stream ‘Cyberfunk!’ below. Hear the album on more platforms here.