Straight out of Belgium, Newmoon are here to make your day that little bit more heartbreakingly beautiful. Picked up originally by Jeremy Bolm’s label Secret Voice back in 2014 for their debut EP, ‘Invitation To Hold’, the band have since been grafting away to create the perfect album to reflect themselves both physically and emotionally. With ‘Space’ they aren’t far off nailing it.
Like their earlier output, ‘Space’ sucks you into its vortex of reverb and fuzz and carries you on a journey like no other. At times like staring at the sun as it begins to set over the horizon, others like being pulled towards a whirlpool with no way of swimming away, Newmoon have crafted songs that play on every emotion you can muster.
‘Head Of Stone’ and ‘Life In The Sun’ swirl with gorgeously vibrant guitars and quietly impassioned vocals, while the delicately touching ‘One Thousand’ builds in an all-out assault of tinnitus-triggering noise and reverb. ‘Skin’ lingers with heated passion and low key desolation. Though its difficult to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the sort of music Newmoon play, they give it a damn good go and craft songs that have enough classic attributes to keep the purists happy but also enough innovation to stop their sound from going stale.
Though it’s never going to change the genre as we know it, ‘Space’ is a beautifully intoxicating portal into the unknown. Blending both the rough and smooth in its stirde and crafting them into something that is as uncomforting as it is inspiring, Newmoon can chalk this up as a tear-stained victory and take pride and place as one of the frontrunners of all things fuzzy.
3.5/5
‘Space’ by Newmoon is released on October 14th on PIAS Recordings.
Newmoon links: Facebook|Twitter
Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)
