So for this review, I thought I'd pull something completely obscure out of my review pile. Moths hail from Houston, Texas and sent me an e-mail a little while ago, that simply contained links to their Bandcamp and Facebook page. Normally I would just ignore these types of e-mails, passing them off as spam but the fact that they had the wherewithal to place links in the e-mail, suggested they were being genuine so I thought the least I could do was check them out. They class themselves as an experimental/punk/hardcore band and so far they have this EP, as Live Demo and a split with Gillian Carter to their name. So, this is my review of their self-titled EP.
Tracklist:-
1. Jupitari
2. Gold Ghost
3. Transit
4. You've Reached Marshall
5. Asteral
6. Perseids
This sounds very jangly to begin with. Jupitari builds up
with the sound of cymbals and then very nice drumming amid electronics. You
feel like it's building up to a big crescendo, but it refuses to spill over and
leaves you waiting in suspense. Gold Coast is where Moths properly kick in,
with their own brand of screamo. The drums and riffs are fairly off-kilter and
the dual screamers are pretty intense. It has a feel of At The Drive-In to it
at times. Very mathy but less melodic.
The tracks are separated by various interludes of
instrumental music. Transit features some great melodic guitar work, occasional
screams and some samples at the end. They fly back into life with You've Reached Marshall, which
is a lot more urgent than Gold Coast. Even though it's less than three minutes
in length, a lot does seem to happen.
The riffs pulsate during Asteral and sound more like swathes
of ambience than actual guitar. It all comes to rest with more droning
electronics and flows straight into closing song Perseids. This is Moths most
ambitious song at over ten minutes in length. When the electronics die down,
the music is easy to drift off too. It's calming and shows a slightly different
side to the band. It doesn't take too long for the impression to be blown to smithereens
though, as they kick back into their spazzy screamo.
I have to admit; I've not heard anything like Moths before.
They seem to have gained a slight space-age appreciation within their sound and
it certainly gives screamo a new edge. If Moths can get their press approach
right, there's no reason why they can't get positive coverage and reviews,
which in turn will help them pick up new fans.
You can stream this EP below. Physical copies have sold out
but if you like it, you can download from the Bandcamp page: -
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