Album Review: Moons - Moons Discography

Album Rating: B

Moons Discography, from Ghost and Demons Records is one of the most enigmatic records I've heard in a long time.  Most notably is its completely bewildering tags, that in all honesty, do not fit the music at all.  On the band's bandcamp, Nathan's music is described as being in the vein of emo and post hardcore, whilst sharing little if anything with either genre.  Confusing genre tags aside, Moons has created an all around intriguing album, blending sounds from across the musical spectrum into one very well produced package.

The album is seventeen tracks long, but song lengths range from 30 seconds to six minutes.  It's a moody album for sure, with a dark enveloping atmosphere that blankets the whole thing.  It has quite a bit in common with albums such as Have A Nice Life's Deathconciousness, featuring the same hollow production and melancholy feel.  However, it is largely an instrumental affair, with little to no vocals being displayed.  Keys and guitar are used, sparsely mind you, as it's mainly a record filled with ambient jams.  Samples are found, and used rather well, adding personality and intrigue, rather than making a certain piece hinge on the sample in question.  It's a expertly crafted album for sure, despite the confounding nature.

If a proper understanding of this album has eluded you, it's because it's actually fairly difficult to properly describe it.  It's an expansive record that challenges one's idea of what instrumental/ambient music can be.  For the first time since Nine Inch Nails' brilliant Ghosts I-IV, the genre feels imbued with a sense of boundless creativity, drawn from industrial, post-rock, emo, and ambient.  Even in attempting to comprehend this odd mixture, one cannot truly understand what Moons Discography really is, and that's what makes it so damn fine.  It's definitely worth hearing, for anyone even remotely interested in the world of instrumental music.

Check out the record here, entirely for free:

Track List:

1. Regression I (Birth is the Beggining of a Suffered Life) 00:29
2. Beautiful Songs About Horrible Things 02:48
3. Sandcastles 02:42
4. Glass 05:04
5. Regression II (Moments of Happiness) 00:30
6. What Time/Where? Part 1 01:52
7. What Time/Where? Part 2 02:36
8. Blue 03:20
9. Regression III (Keeping Quiet) 00:38
10. Blume 01:34
11. Blume & I 02:31
12. A Hand On Mount Tahan 02:40
13. Mitaka Incident 03:22
14. Sayama Incident 03:36
15. Regression IV (I'm Not Here, I Don't Want To Be) 00:38
16. The Sounds Inside My Head 06:15
17. The Sounds Inside Your Head 04:18