CD Reviews

The Soft Moon | Zeros

Captured Tracks (2012)

By MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | October 24, 2012

3.5 Stars

Feeling disassociated, darkened, distressed, or just plain different this fall? Don't fret or suffer like the only hope out there for getting lost musically is by listening to early Depeche Mode or jumping on the Kraftwerk revival bandwagon. There are, in fact, a slew of newish bands with a full palette of grey melancholy and aural dissonance ready to take you in their cold embrace. The Soft Moon joins the ranks of Silk Flowers, Cold Cave, and Ducktails as modern guardians of the bleak. Brainchild of NoCal's Luis Vasquez, the Soft Moon sound fuses anxious synth lines with jittery drum machines; check the sway of the title track on Zeros and its seamless transmutation into Krautrock. It's a minimalist approach that started on the Soft Moon's outstanding 2010 self-titled debut full-length, and continues here with each composition taking on an overall instrumental feel despite the occasional presence of lyrical accompaniment. When they do enter the soundscape, Vasquez's vocals tend to hover above the song or, as with the incredibly Cure-like eeriness of "Insides," echo like a swirling vapor of torturous hopelessness. The effect is emotive without being over the top or resorting to a smeared-eyeliner addiction. Imagine if when Trent Reznor first hit the scene he had been more despondent than angry, headed in the opposite direction of his immediate industrial forebears Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Skinny Puppy, instead welcoming the softer yet no less intense side of Peter Murphy. Speaking of which, it's that time of year again, where one is encouraged to get all bereft in deathly bloom anyhow. So watch the leaves fall as the season continues to turn while sitting alone in a darkened room. Just make sure the Soft Moon is playing within earshot.

Review: Joyful Noise
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions
Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
O'Brother | Garden Window
O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."
Guided by Voices | Let's Go Eat the Factory
The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.
Brite Futures | Dark Past
A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.
A Place to Bury Strangers | Onwards to the Wall
Onwards to the Wall clocks in at 16 minutes and 35 seconds, and it could shatter into smithereens at any moment.
Cloud Nothings | Attack on Memory
With Attack on Memory , the third full-length from Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings, 20-year-old frontman Dylan Baldi approaches new, drastically darker material with the same empty-bottle angst that made his previous releases so appealing.
You Me at Six | Sinners Never Sleep
Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
Imperial Teen | Feel the Sound
Like its title, fifth album Feel the Sound is as generic as doubters have probably always assumed — they sound both relaxed and exhausted.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Music, review, album, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER

REX BROWN DELIVERS THE WORD ON PANTERA | March 20, 2013
“No holds barred” and “warts and all” are typical qualifiers when it comes to rock-and-roll memoirs, but rarely do they fulfill the promise.

PHOTOS: DEVOTCHKA AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES | March 13, 2013
DeVotchKa performs live at the House of Blues on March 9, 2013.

WHAT'S F'N NEXT? ALT-J | February 26, 2013
Bands that have taken home the United Kingdom's Mercury Prize in the past have included Suede, Pulp, Primal Scream, and Arctic Monkeys.

SHOUT OUT LOUDS | OPTICA | February 26, 2013
Stockholm's Shout Out Louds have always been a curious but consistent act.

WHAT'S F'N NEXT? CAVEMAN | February 20, 2013
Most people are probably sick to death of Brooklyn being a hipster's paradise where dinks with moustaches tatted on their fingers drive fixed-gear bikes to Williamsburg bars to pay $6.50 for a can of PBR.