Motihari Brigade Let Music and Writing Work Together on “Problematic”

Released on George Orwell’s birthday, Problematic is Motihari Brigade’s third album. Eric Winston has made a record where the music and the writing pull in the same direction. The album opens with a short instrumental that creates a restless atmosphere before any lyrics appear. From there, the songs move with a steady, unhurried groove that gives the ideas space to land. The playing stays clear and direct, with guitars that cut through rather than wash over the songs.

Repetition is used throughout the album as both a musical and lyrical device. On the title track, the central phrase returns insistently over a solid, mid-tempo groove. The music does not push the repetition into the background. It supports it, letting the line gain weight each time it comes back. This approach appears in other songs too, where the band keeps the rhythm section locked in so that the recurring lines can do their work without needing extra decoration.

The middle section of the record stretches this idea furthest. Two longer tracks sit together and function almost as one extended piece. The music builds gradually through layers of questioning and a persistent rhythmic drive. There is a sense of accumulation, both in the words and in the way the arrangements develop. When the sequence eventually moves into the band’s version of “Fortunate Son”, it feels like a natural extension of what came before rather than a break. The length and pacing here matter. They give the ideas time to settle.

Elsewhere the album uses contrast to keep things from becoming too uniform. Some songs are deliberately lean, with the band holding back and letting economy do the work. Others shift perspective, with the music staying grounded while the lyrics adopt tones closer to the systems being examined. In these moments the clarity of the playing becomes important. The band does not hide behind effects or atmosphere, which makes the change in voice feel more pointed.

Toward the end the tone shifts. After the more outward and accumulative sections, the final song pulls inward. The arrangement becomes sparser and the music more reflective. It registers a quieter sense of loss and memory. This change in mood feels earned because the earlier tracks have already established the larger stakes through both sound and language. The band does not force the transition. It simply lets the music breathe differently.

What stands out about Problematic is how the music and the songwriting support each other without one overpowering the other. Winston uses repetition, pacing and restraint as structural tools, and the band plays in a way that makes those choices feel natural rather than conceptual. The result is a record that feels coherent and purposeful. It does not try to dramatise its frustrations. Instead, it lets the music and the words move forward together, returning to the same concerns from different angles until they start to carry a different kind of weight.

Follow Motihari Brigade

Problematic is out now.

Listen: Spotify · Bandcamp

Follow: Instagram · X · YouTube · Official Site