The Soft Moon = new on Captured Tracks

so, uh, are you listening to this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5By-64c_ao

yes, it's excellent

Really good. Can't find a copy at any stores anywhere, though, get some distro dudes.

like not a bad track on it. they all kind of run together (thread connections 2011), but in a good way. presently taken with "sewer sickness" and "tiny spiders".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwVSq6XETqc

I actually want more vocal tracks. I never want more vocals!

yeah, i get that, but i'm cool with the whispery (mostly) instro tones. should do a zola jesus collab or something. best post-blank-dogs whatever by a huge margin.

listened to this on the tube in this morning, its great. I kind of ignored it at first due to the raving on boomkat , i seem to have put up some serious defenses in the wake of their constant OESB bumming

I need to get this album. The two singles were really great.

Yeah, I haven't been able to find this in any locals either, I need to get it. I have and love their previous 7".

have only heard Tiny Spiders but it's really good

anyone who is looking for this can ilx webmail me and i can mailorder u some copies from my shop. if yer desperate. that goes for most captured tracks releases too.

second one of those two is better - great sound, wish they weren't so similar to joy division

love this album.

wish they weren't so similar to joy division

feel this is a lazy and misguided comparison

they aren't like joy division!

if anything, they're akin to the gloomy, goth-y underground 80s bands, with a little of the industrial vibe (if not sound).

xxp: I do too. It has a similar sound/feel to Colder -- who I really like as well

eh, the joy div comparison makes a fair amount of sense to me, at least as applies to tracks like "breathe the fire". a cavernous, echoing space inhabited by simple driving bass, coldly chiming guitars, ominous synth and pounding beats. you might as well say savage republic, red lorry yellow lorry or the minny pops, i guess, depending on the song. but the album travels quite a bit from that jumping-point, especially given how psychedelic it clearly aims to be. a song like "circles" might seem to be assembled from factory-era elements, but it resembles joy division hardly at all.

might be lazy or misguided but the bass in breathe the fire i mean cmon

that's the one track where i see a real possible comparison

yeah one track mebbe, but no wai the album as a whole

also I'd already formulated the comparison by then so it kinda spilt over into Tiny Spiders even though I really liked that song

will give the whole album a listen, the sound is great and the songwriting has promise :)

tiny spiders / circles / out of time are the high points.

oddly the band it reminds me most of is for against, on their earliest 'in the marshes' stuff. mind you FA were heavily in debt to the factory/4AD sound but never resembled any one specific band

hard for me to settle on high points, which is a nice feeling. "when it's over" is great, too. "parallels", "sewer sickness"...

listening to the album now, not only is breathe the fire better on second listen (melodic variation in the bass u&k) but circles is awes

:D

the very wow-y (as in & flutter) synth throughout the rec is probably my favourite sound of the last few years

it sounds like a synthy version of the guitar in this late-90s classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlQyAIEA3nc

something in the guitar is redolent of the following stone-classic as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1T8Qb986U

altho I'd say the Joy Division comparison SORTA holds for 'Into The Depths' as well, ha

gr8 album, last coupla trax 2 go

loving this so far

i realize this disc arrives at what should be the tail-end of 80s retro-fetishism, but i hope this particular strain of nu-goth sound sticks around for a while. tr: loving this album.

nu-goth/industrial, i should say.

Am I the only person who is reminded slightly of A Place to Bury Strangers?

APTBS comparison is sorta spot-on only I'd say this project feels like it has more melodic meat on its bones, whereas APTBS seems like a band much more concerned with texture than songwriting (not a bad thing, just different IMO).

you're not alone. soft moon and APTBS are both nu-industrial (with soft moon being a large part nu-goth, too).

this is siiiiick

anyone focused on the last track? on a lot of albums, i get wary of the vibe, and rarely make it to the end, at least until i return to the disc at a later time. here, tho, tiny spiders grabbed my attention and never let go. i think it's the skittering, nervous-energy of the drum pattern (and, of course, those spider-y guitar lines).

Yeah "Tiny Spiders" is a standout on this album. Really don't see myself getting tired of this album.

i'm actually really glad a specific thread was started for this disc.

it could have easily been lost in the rolling-indie threads. this is on captured-tracks, right? a label in its prime.

"tiny spiders" is one of my favorites, too. love the twitchy drums/percussion and gleaming, weblike cure guitars, yes. and i'm impressed by how much mileage TSM gets from very simple tricks: chiming 8th note guitars and rich, corroded synth tones over a driving beat, for instance. could easily get old fast, but vasqez has sufficient knack for melodic and rhythmic hooks to keep things interesting from track to track.

guitars, voice & bass in the opening minute of "when it's over" = my favorite single moment. that lovely, longing warmth is so much more striking and haunting amidst the album's overall chill than it might be on its own. god, and the gradual incorporation of howling synth noise towards the end, so that it eventually swims toward some perfect collision of strange times chameleons and loveless MBV. great great great.

and yeah, captured tracks has really

...upped its game recently. was having doubts amidst the initial onslaught of releases circa 2009/early 2010.

captured tracks and sacred bones are my two favorite labels currently.

cough

Captured Tracks' limited vinyl is SO nice though; the alternate sleeve art is invariably gorgeous. my favorite is the alternate AIAS cover:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qNYb8mkRagI/TLctbkD3EMI/AAAAAAAABXw/ppm3AxAcFYM/s1600/AIAS.jpg

HQ Video from their first LA Show. What ya say ?

http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/music-videos/755-the-soft-moon/2498-tiny-spiders-live-in-la/

listening to the album now....it gets a little bit repetitve but shit, it sounds great...ar kane wash-out at the end of "when its over" <3 <3

new track

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12362-total-decay/

intro reminds me of interpol. then it improves.

haha i listened to the wrong track, i thought it sounded familiar

new track sounds great!!

really nice track

killer mix

http://www.factmag.com/2011/10/28/fact-mix-295-the-soft-moon/

dang. wish i'd been here to nominate this for EOY albums - this and the total control LP.

Loving both the album and especially the EP here at the moment.

Yeah the album was really good, but the EP was fantastic.

man i would so vote for both of those, love the total control especially

also check out the kim phuc lp on the same label

http://ironlungpv.bandcamp.com/album/kim-phuc-copsucker-lp

http://th01.deviantart.net/fs47/300W/i/2009/247/5/1/Intrigued_by_ChrissieCool.jpg

??

?!??!

intrigued!

disclaimer: kim phuc sound a lot like fugazi

cat looking less intrigued

that total control lp is so rad

so do we have a rolling punk 2012 thread yet or

yeah i started one rolling punk/non-indie underground 2012

Kinda want to edit scenes from Escape From New York with songs from Total Control as the soundtrack. I mean, not really, but I love the vibe.

gotta say the new Soft Moon track (Die Life) isn't really pointing to a major or even medium departure from the debut, other than sounding a touch more higher fi. a little disappointing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZXcyXqUikY

new track in collaboration with john foxx (ultravox!) and his band the maths. very nice, though quite low-key. strange to hear that voice on a soft moon track, but you can't call it treading water.

It's from Foxx's third album in 2 years. You'd do well to look into what THAT VOICE has been up to!

New track, "Black"

https://soundcloud.com/capturedtracks/02-black/s-D2JyL

Well that's a little bit more aggro than usual. Not a bad thing.

Nice. The 2nd album was a big letdown for me, but this sounds promising.

Now on Sacred Bones, new track, album in February:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIVB9x-HDzg

tragic news

https://thequietus.com/articles/33763-the-soft-moon-luis-vasquez-has-died?_gl=1*1t2l0eb*_ga*MTcwODQ1NTQ1MS4xNzA1Njc1NzQy*_up*MQ..*_ga_8LMNCBHKLK*MTcwNTY3NTc0Mi4xLjAuMTcwNTY3NTc0Mi4wLjAuMA

Apparently the DJ Silent Servant and his partner died as well? I’m not seeing details beyond that at present.

yeah the story mentioned that...an "incident" which is interesting phrasing

more than solely a DJ Ned - without a doubt one of the most important producers of dark, gothy techno in the last 20 years

Yes indeed. Silent Servant was in a league of his own. So, so sad.

Saw some chatter on twitter that indicated it's fentanyl-related. :( Not verified but seems plausible, with the scenario and phrasing.

avoid twitter if you don't want sordid details about this. It's a mess over there right now, complete with accusatory call-outs of specific LA scenesters

Don't know any of these people personally but still in shock over this. I've logged many hours listening to Mendez, particularly.

this news is really unfortunate and disturbing

Probably not the time to dump on Pitchfork, but weird how they gave one of these deaths "top billing." I guess it's the orbit I'm in, but Mendez / Sandwell is a very big deal to me and my friends. I'm sure, based on everything I've read, that I would really like The Soft Moon, but tbh I wasn't really aware of their music before this terrible tragedy. Regardless, placing Juan's obit down in the "other random news" ghetto seems like an odd editorial decision to me

Another perspective: I've never heard of Mendez / Sandwell or Silent Servant, but have been aware of The Soft Moon for more than a decade, own an album and have seen them live.

i guess it does depend on one's perspective. i'm a very big SS fan and barely aware of The Soft Moon yet it seems the latter is definitely the bigger act. I guess The Soft Moon is more Pitchfork-esque while more electronic focussed sites focussed on the SS news.

Silent Servant is great, just a major artist if you're into that sort of thing.

Per Paul's point, there is a lot of chatter and accusations going around, though to me it's more a larger issue of drugs being a problem vs this individual case needing to be deeply analyzed and anyone needing to be singled out. I kinda find drug use depressing and always have generally, and have a few friends who are in a bad way with some (or were), and the cost of so many drugs both legal and illegal (and ones that are along the blurry line) is incomprehensible sometimes. Fentanyl is a scourge, fuck it forever.

i don't think this incident needs to be overly analyzed for the purpose of placing blame, but i do think transparency about what happened is important b/c if any good at all can come from such a huge loss it will be more conversation about the very real danger of fentanyl, and hopefully more emphasis on the importance of testing kits and the availability of narcan in the underground dance music scene and in any other spaces that are inevitablity gonna have casual drug use

inevitably*

100% otm karl!