THEM MOOSE RUSH

Dancing Maze

TMaverick Croatian trio maintain the pace on third album.

hem Moose Rush are one of the more exciting bands lurking in prog’s subgenres, sitting with a smile on their face somewhere between Primus, Thumpermonkey and The Mars Volta, as fit for a slot at a math rock festival as a sweaty tent at Reading.

Their invigorating 2018 album, Don’t Pick Your Noise, set the bar high, but the hit rate on this follow-up Dancing Maze is just as impressive. Slightly less brash and a tad more considered – no track is longer than five minutes – it lets fly a sense of urgency, with bite-size, catchy chunks of warped noise lobbed around like sonic hand grenades.

Opener Ray’s Dancing Maze sets the pace, shapeshifting from snaking fretboard-flurries to dreamy-yet-nightmarish soundscapes. There’s a tasting board of flavours to poke your tongue into, from the grunge murkiness of Jeff’s Transcending to the contorted bass meanderings of Dolly’s Wedding Songs. A song titled Jerry’s Bacon Flavoured Vegan Potion suggests TMR don’t take themselves too seriously, but with its genre-bending approach and odd-time signatures, Dancing Maze emerges as a multitextured tapestry which is difficult to define, but bloody fun to listen to.