Captured Tracks

A couple of years ago I discovered The Soft Moon when I was looking for A Place To Bury Strangers-like shoegaze-rock style bands. The Soft Moon is a descent band in that ‘genre’, but when I saw them at the 2013 Summer Darkness festival, they proved to be much more energetic on stage than on their albums which made their show more interesting than their albums.

While at the gothic Summer Darkness festival the band probably did not have their usual audience, yesterday the band played at the Psych Lab Eindhoven festival with a whole range of different-style psychedelic bands; more their scene I think. Their show was with quite a distance the most interesting of the evening. Whereas many band were slow and… psychedelic, The Soft Moon were noisy, uptempo and very energetic. Judging my review of the “Zeros” album, that also was true for the Utrecht show. The band played quite a few tracks that I did not know, so I figured they might have a new album out and indeed, their merchandise stand had “Deeper”.

The cd opens in a promising way with the uptempo “Inward”. Just as in my previous review, I can say that “Deeper” is not as continuously energetic as the live performance. There are also slower and even soft songs to be found on the album. Like in my previous review I can say that there are great and alright tracks on the cd and again I prefer the faster tracks. There seems to be more focus on electronics this time with some beat-driven tracks, but in basis the sound of The Soft Moon is shoegazish, slightly psychedelic rock, somewhat reminding of the sound of A Place To Bury Strangers; so: noisy with high-pitched guitars.

A nice album, but perhaps a live album would be even nicer.

Links: The Soft Moon, Captured Tracks

I already knew The Soft Moon when I noticed that they would play at this year’s Summer Darkness festival. Out of place, since they are not from ‘the gothic scene’, but fitting with their sound which certainly has 1980’ies wave and gothic rock elements. The show was great, the albums that I listened to a bit on Deezer, are nice too. Great tracks and alright tracks alternate. During their show I bought two albums, “Zeros” is their last album, so I decided to review it.
“Zeros” has more uptempo songs which are the songs I like best. The sound reminds a bit of A Place To Bury Strangers here and there. The ‘wavey’ beats/drums, high-pitched guitars and screaking sounds (no guitars, but coming from the synth). There are not that many vocals, usually just some screaming. “Zeros”, as the other albums that I heard of The Soft Moon, goes from great tracks to nice tracks. Live they seemed more energetic and rocking, in the living room the sound is a lot better than it was in Tivoli (way too loud). A nice album, certainly, but not the best ‘in the style’ that I know. One of the faster bands though, so if you like A Place To Bury Strangers or The Lost Rivers, you might be interested in The Soft Moon too.
Links: The Soft Moon, Captured Tracks