One of the tracks on Moa Pillar’s new EP, The Moon and Thun­der Dance, first appeared on the excel­lent free com­pi­la­tion from Error Broad­cast called Fly Rus­sia, which I pre­vi­ously reviewed. About that par­tic­u­lar track I said: “I can’t really think of any­thing in imme­di­ate mem­ory that bangs quite so hard as Moa Pillar’s “Water Lily” (with the excep­tion of Slu­gabed, maybe), a track that goes along way to mak­ing chirp­ing bleeps the most men­ac­ing sound in exis­tence. Per­haps it’s the tum­bling drums behind it? Or the blunt instru­ment bass rolling along under­neath it all? This is def­i­nitely how you start a compilation.”

That same con­trast between high fre­quency bleeps and rough, whirl­wind beats per­vades the EP. The title track is built around an abstracted female “oh yeah” snip­pet, almost like mutant R&B crossed with strains of stretched house. In fact, the entire EP seems to have a foun­da­tion in the slinky bass and melody of mod­ern funk. Even on the slightly Eastern-sounding “Haema,” slow synths bub­ble and weave in the back­ground, pro­vid­ing a laid-back ver­sion of the type of hyper-funk that comes out of Night Slugs. “Red in Rain­bow” is col­or­ful like it’s name sug­ges­tions, paint­ing bright and dark hues of the same color through­out the track. The synth goes up and down in mod­u­la­tion while atyp­i­cal gui­tar loops float in the spaces between. Moa Pil­lar pulls the activ­ity back a step for the med­i­ta­tive closer, “Lake Mys­tery,” a twin­kling pool of gen­tle keys and foggy bass. It cer­tainly sounds like a lonely lake at night. The Moon and Thun­der Dance is dis­trib­uted by Alpha Pup Records.

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