We profiled The Luna Moth’s The Compass that Only Points East some time ago, and have been keeping a close eye on the band’s news outlets for any further information. The trio has finally released a follow-up EP, Thunderous or Deluge, which is comprised of two tracks running around twenty-five minutes total.
The opening track, “Thunderous”, clocks in at just under ten minutes, and shows the band hasn’t lost anything since their last release. The quiet of a lush green forest is suddenly shattered by a pair of lumbering primordial Sasquatch running through the underbrush. The couple, a male and female, is running just a few feet apart, nearly holding hands. Their giant, hair-covered bodies drip in the Pacific spring rain, rivulets flowing through their matted fur. A whiff of your scent hanging on the humid air catches their attention around the three-minute mark, and the pair becomes alert and quiet for a few moments. The male determines all is clear, and they finally lope off into the thick foliage. Sounds somehow romantic, but the roar of their mating calls echoing through the firs and redwoods turns your blood to ice.
The fifteen-minute flip, “Deluge”, begins with a quiet intro section offshore and proceeds with a slow build of momentum towards our position. Subtle variations are introduced throughout – a shift in Levi Fuller’s bass tone here, sprinkling cymbals there, until finally the cloud mass is roiling immediately overhead around the seven-minute mark. The winds kick up with Mark Schlipper’s guitar, while the bass keeps the underbelly of the supercell dark and approaching. The band’s new drummer, Kenny Day, provides the downpour. Around ten minutes, the squall line passes, and the trio proceeds onward, leaving the listener with only the receding minimalism of Fuller’s bass-line as the storm moves inland.
It’s this final third of the song that cements the three-, and in fact, four-dimensional aspect of the band’s work – the storm has passed you, the listener, and has moved on. The piece is presented from the listener’s perspective, not the band’s – they are the storm, we are the stormed. They rush on, taking their deluge elsewhere, always living in that four-to-nine minute climax section, while we close out our time with the song left only with Doppler effect thunder moving east.
Overall, it’s another naturally cinematic release from The Luna Moth. It seems they’ve found some stability in their line-up, and have been playing shows in their area recently. We definitely hope we don’t have to wait so long for the next release!
The Luna Moth:
virb (which ahem features downloadable tracks from The Compass that only Points East) including: