Labels: Asian Man Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
The lure of the 7″ single is not quite the same as it once was as I am too bloody lazy to get up and flip the disk as required, but when I get drawn into something as good as this single by Wild Moth, I can make an exception. This is a proper EP with 4 songs and about 14 minutes worth of music, and it lures you into a false sense of safety with it’s lumbering, drowsy opening that sounds a bit like a Jets to Brazil intro on the title track. All swirling guitars and sonic cotton wool, and it’s a trick. Because after this runs out of steam, they quickly crank things into a far higher gear and start playing a gloriously catchy form of bouncy post punk, like Mission of Burma got filtered through mid period Promise Ring (sorry, this is a terrible comparison but please forgive me, I am on lunch break and not really firing on all cylinders). And what a killer tune. Just keeps rumbling on, like a runaway train. The vocals initially put me off a touch, they’re a bit monotone and detached, but a few more listens put me in the right frame of mind. The slow start features again on the brooding intro of “Relic” and “Patience” (aptly named) before they get rumbling. Again they hit a forceful, persistent groove that keeps things shifting along. Things are brought to the end of the record on the battering “Prison” which abandons some of the catchiness in favour of hardcore bluster and some yelling. I prefer the other stuff but it has it’s moments.
I understand these guys also have a 10″, I think I need to hear it, as this is bloody great.