MOTHS AND LOCUSTS EMBARK ON GROOVY MUSICAL JOURNEY
New seven-track album presents Nanaimo sextet's `biker disco' sound at its finest
Moths and Locusts
Exoplanets | mothsandlocusts.com
Self-described “diehard spacerock explorers hailing from the pulsating heart of Vancouver Island,” Nanaimo sextet Moths and Locusts specialize in droning, melting fuzz-heavy grooves served up in an echo chamber of stereophonic goo. In other words, the sounds coming out of the group's Republic of Doom practice space have the Hawkwind seal of approval.
Having been a backing band for no less a titan than Canadian vocalist Damo Suzuki in 2013, the group has released a number of well-received albums on different labels over the course of its decade-long existence. Membership has been fluid with no shortage of celebrity collaborators from Ian Blurton to members of Sloan, Wolf Parade and others.
Every subsequent album has built on the previous, expanding the sound and the ferocity of the delivery.
Exoplanets combines recordings made on Vancouver Island with sessions from Saskatchewan and Toronto for seven songs that present what some have called the band's “biker disco” sound at its finest. Here are five things to know about the album.
1. Cocaine Kangaroo
The opening tune has a great title and has apparently been a live fave for some time. The opening chords are as Black Sabbath as can be, but the tune doesn't stay mired in the sludge for long. A bouncing stoner rock riff paired with growling vocals and a haunted chorus come together to make a pretty grand statement about what is to come. Dude, this rocks.
2. Nero's Surgery
At only 2:28, this is the shortest track on the album, boasting acoustic guitar, folky chant vocals and enough bizarre background blips and buzzes to make any fan of studio experiments smile widely. At most, this is an interlude or a sonic palate cleanser before the feedback comes back.
3. A Ram Named Drama
In the tradition of Woodhands and other contemporary groove/ psyche crews, this song hits a beat and just rides it for all it's worth as space echoes, crashing electric guitar and bass lines that swerve between a near New Order level of cleanliness and something that New Model Army wouldn't mind. The percussion and speaking break at about the four-minute mark is delightfully weird.
4. Exoplanets
The title track is a monster that must own the live show. At nearly 16 minutes' length, it begins with pastoral flute and quaint lilting melodies before the sleepy vocals come in like a chorus of Gregorian monks well into their house ale. By the five-minute mark, this pleasant ditty is turned into a paranoid opera, complete with frenzied vocals that could get the hairs on your neck standing up. It all resolves with more airy niceness before everything becomes one extended cymbal crash of contained noise.
5. Fresh Red Blood
The closing song is another adventure into notes that land only to vanish away on a wind of reverb before the next wave of sounds crash in. Don't let that make you think that this is another loud banger though. It isn't. The song is altogether pleasant, like that space between deep sleep and waking where some of our best thinking happens.
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