In pop music, the 1980s remain inescapable, but in the electronic realm, the 1990s currently reign supreme. The sounds of trance, jungle, garage, and IDM have all experienced a major resurgence in recent years; somehow things have reached a point where even electronica is being reevaluated and the average club kid often looks like an extra from The Fifth Element.
Moin’s debut album, Moot!, is heavily indebted to the ’90s as well. But instead of mining of classic Aphex Twin and Goldie records for inspiration, the UK outfit—which consists of Raime’s Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead along with percussionist and longtime collaborator Valentina Magaletti, who’s also logged time in the group Tomaga—dives deep into post-punk and post-hardcore, worshipping at the altar of bands like Slint, Shellac, and Unwound.
With its brawny riffs and jagged guitars, the largely instrumental Moot! brilliantly hearkens back to a time when labels like Dischord and Touch & Go were at the top of the indie-rock heap. It’s a direction that Andrews and Halstead have hinted at before, both with their initial Moin outings on Blackest Ever Black—which were released with little fanfare in 2012 and 2013—and again on 2016’s Tooth, by Raime. That LP infused the group’s usual low-end sonics with elements of muscular Albini-core, but Moot! tilts the balance heavily toward the latter. Although they haven’t abandoned electronics altogether, the guitar is now clearly front and center, as is Magaletti’s percussion, which gives the album a thrillingly organic feel.
For anyone who’s seen Raime in concert during the past few years, the thundering grooves of Moot! will likely ring familiar. Magaletti, who also provided drum sounds for both Raime LPs, has been part of the group’s touring lineup for several years now, and live recording techniques featured prominently in the new album’s creation. Moot! is a scrappy, stripped-down effort, but the general lack of polish does nothing to diminish the album’s power. The spiky “Lungs” sounds like something the Jesus Lizard might have cooked up (minus David Yow’s vocals), and the taut basslines of album highlight “Crappy Dreams Count” channel Fugazi. Songs like “I Can’t Help but Melt” and LP closer “It’s Never Goodbye”—the latter could be a lost track from Spiderland—slow things down, embracing the dirge while sprinkling a bit of psychedelia into the mix, but Moin’s intensity never wanes.
Thirty years ago, indie rock was rife with records that sounded like Moot!, and the bands of that era inspired successive waves of followers. But today, an album like this, coming from a context like Moin’s, feels radical. Most of the band’s peers put their guitars down a long time ago, and AD 93 isn’t known as a hub for post-punk experiments, but none of that matters once the sinewy, distortion-licked chords of LP opener “No to Gods, No to Sunsets” kick in. With its incantation-like vocals, the song also brings to mind the moody ambiance of groups like Three Mile Pilot, and that nightmarish spirit spills over into the feverishly chugging “Right Is Alright, Wrong Is to Belong,” another highlight.
Moot! is steeped in the past, but its appeal isn’t limited to its nostalgia factor. In a time when the electronic-music landscape has been flooded with precision-crafted DJ tools, escapist bouts of narcotic abstraction, and awkward pop-crossover attempts, Moin have taken a different route: plowing straight ahead, cranking their amps, and greeting listeners with a swift kick to the chest. It’s jarring, but it’s also an exhilarating reminder of just how powerful live music—and live post-punk in particular—can be, even in 2021. After a year-plus of life without concerts, Moot! is anything but.
Catch up every Saturday with 10 of our best-reviewed albums of the week. Sign up for the 10 to Hear newsletter here.
