For a scrawny little git from the Home Counties (now decamped to Bristol), Mojura (the Japanese for modular, as if you didn't already know) talks a good, violent, and frequent fight. Speaking of his career aspirations, he states that his brand of dark, atmospheric instrumental music would be perfect as a film score...."especially if the film is about fighting". Over the course of this interview, he will describe a bassline of his as "making you want to grind your teeth and go fightin'", and endearingly refer to his favourite break as a "beat-the-fuck-out-of-your-mother-beat". Yep, this boy's got serious bloodlust.

The scary thing is, for his poor mother at least, he's not even exaggerating. His music is at times haunting, very often ferocious but never less than compelling. The opening track to his The Rule of Three demo, Negative Blooty is actually something of a false start in that it sounds only marginally evil: swathes of guitar introduce a heavy, rolling bassline backed by a chopped, Shadow-esque beat. Most impressive is the way that live instruments merge seamlessly with heavily treated beats 'n' pieces...something that Mojura is understandably proud of: "This song does best I think to illustrate what I do - proving that guitars and hip hop / electronic music definitely do mix if used correctly - something that 99% of people seem to get very wrong."

The reason for him being in the single percent that get it very right is in no small part down to the breadth and integrity of his influences. This is not a hip hop kid playing at guitar music, or an indie kid desperately trying to prove that "I've always had a hip hop element to my music". This is someone who simply loves music in all its weird and wonderful forms.. "My biggest influences would have to be people like Death In Vegas, Portishead, MF Doom, The Beta Band, Primal Scream, DJ Shadow, QOTSA, with a little bit of pre-laptopwankery-era Radiohead." Over the course of the three tunes here, little snippets of all of these appear. The brilliantly titled I'm Worth A Hundred Of You Fuckface sounds, to quote the man himself, like "Queens of the Stone Age produced by DJ Shadow; an intense, pounding beat underpinning a beast of a bassline and ethereal guitar. Plus a generous helping of cowbell, for which we are truly thankful.

The finale, A Deviant's Delusions Of Sweetness has to be the title of Mojura's inevitable debut album, so perfectly does it encapsulate his approach. And there is a kind of twisted beauty to his sound, no matter how well hidden within the darkness. It's there in the string soaked chorus, and it's there in the little electronic flourishes. It's also there in the answer to the question of which song he most wishes he'd written: " How Sweet It Could Be by the Bar Kays. It manages to be soppy as hell but still has an enormous amount of integrity and beauty to its sentiment - something that is very, very hard to do."

So, what does the future hold? "I'm certainly good enough to make a living out of music, and essentially that is what I want to do; be able to get my music out there and tour properly. The last thing I ever want is to be famous, but I would love to be respected." I also learn that, after hearing of an appalling track title from the next Oasis LP, Get Off Your High Horse (Lady), Mojura has titled his current work in progress Tie Your Own Shoelaces (Bitch). His poor, poor mother.

FLASHLIGHT NOTICE: We are currently working on a media player for the site, but in the meantime be sure to check out Mojura's work at his MySpace. We really want your demos for our unsigned bands section. If we like them as much as we like The Rule of Three, we may well interview you as well as review the demo. Please see the Demo Section for details.