NEWS
EVENTS
Moderat: II - Album Review
Tuesday 29th October 2013 | Cristina
II is a near perfect pop album. Sounding at times like a younger, cooler Moby and at others like a more sound-drenched Burial, this is music to lose your mind to. Heavy percussion and pretty synths are drowned in sound, creating luscious, delirious textures which are shamelessly melodic, rich and beautiful. It is not hard to see why they were voted the best live act of 2009 by readers of Resident Advisor – almost every song from this LP is euphorically danceable. Many could be released as a single and do well commercially. Beyond commercial appeal, the LP is genuinely innovative, looking convincingly to glitch, downtempo, garage and IDM for the future of dance music. The LP addresses large, sweaty crowds with its vast, sweeping hooks, pounding beats and unpretentious lyricism. In doing so, it recognizes the power of community in dance music – a force backed up by mind-altering substances and physical liberation, which if tapped correctly, has the potential to be a more unifying energy than many other forms of music.
There are traces of the pioneering post-dubstep work of Mount Kimbie throughout, in the opening track and ‘Milk’, which suggests the sophistication of ‘Made to Stray’ in its melancholic and slow melodic progression. The album’s first single, ‘Bad Kingdom’ sounds like a less abrasive Sub Focus tackling social themes and it works as well as that description implies it does. ‘This is not what you wanted/Not what you had in mind’ goes the lament which opens one of the biggest choruses in recent dance music. A towering dubstep anthem with an arty, political video, it signifies an incisive crossover appeal in the LP.
‘Versions’ is delicious, sexy garage produced with the lush, heady vibes which define Moderat. Halfway through, the track dissolves into spine-tinglingly sparse ambient electronica, leaving barely anything but the relentless backbeat. The resulting intensity will set packed-out parties on fire. ‘Let in the Light’ starts out as contemplative future garage cum witch house, sounding a little like a cross between Disclosure and Purity Ring, before morphing into R&B reminiscent of Drake or the Weeknd. That this extraordinary collection of influences is exhibited in four minutes is testament to the promising future of Moderat. The wordless pitch-shifted vocals of ‘Therapy’ build until the triumph that occurs halfway through the song when it finds its filthy groove. The album gets darker toward its end, drifting into atmospheric pieces of interesting electronica which are no less compelling than their more cathartic counterparts. ‘I see the damage I’ve done’ is sung over guitars which verge on Genesis-esque indie or prog rock in Damage Done.
II is immediately effective, infectious and appealing to a wide demographic. It speaks to my generation directly – I am 20 – in its acknowledgement of a need for music which is instantly gratifying at the same time as it has significance more profound than the events of last night’s champagne-soaked debauchery and recognizes emotion other than relatively shallow, conventional romantic love. After all, in three minutes of EDM it’s hard to express complex themes with words. In many cases, as exemplified here, it’s better expressed with as few words as possible.
