The Soft Moon – Total Decay EP
October 31st, 2011
Captured Tracks
Score: 8.1
At risk of losing any credibility as a music critic, the idea of Joy Division always appealed to me more than their records. New Order captured my imagination and I still listen to Power, Corruption, and Lies a lot more often than Unknown Pleasures. Having said that, The Soft Moon take my idea of Joy Division and create a sonic junkyard of beauty using the darkest parts of post-punk mixed with industrial elements of goth that reach all the way back to 1978.
Luis Vasquez remains the lone (lost?) soul at the center of The Soft Moon’s creative process and Total Decay compresses the best parts of 2010’s excellent debut into a 14-minute nightmare of electronic uneasiness broken into four songs.
‘Repetition’ builds around a static bass line as electronic noise ebbs and flows around it until a tribal wave of percussion crashes into the music. ‘Alive’ rises from the darkness with a threatening guitar line that pulls the listener further into the unknown. Vocals are dispensed as noise throughout, with lyrics often whispered and rarely distinguishable from the surrounding din. In this way, The Soft Moon are providing a soundtrack to your own emptiness and leaving it to you to fill in the meanings. The title track does everything right, with swirling whispers dodging in between the industrial rhythms.
It’s an uncomfortable experience at times, but the adrenaline rush of exploring a world without light should not be missed. Despite its modest length, Total Decay runs deep enough to reward multiple listens and is just enough to tantalize the ears while we await the next outburst from the gifted Luis Vasquez.
Jason Lent