The Soft Moon

One-man (emotional) wrecking crew, multi-instrumentalist and duopolymath Luis Vasquez a.k.a. The Soft Moon returns with deeply personal sixth album, ‘Exister’.

What are you to do when disinterred traumas, ruffled relationships and psychic wounds begin to seep and weep? For Louis Vasquez the only solution is to channel, create, cast-out.

‘Exister’ contains a veritable array of abrasive sounds, styles, and sermons, a soul-searching self-reflexive screed to avoid self-fulfilling prophecies, to not become a reincarnation of handed-down maternal miseries replete with mantra-filled confessionals. Turning the soil of turmoil.

Crawling, scrawling and trawling and crawling through raw, deeply-buried pasts, the familial ties that bind (and blind) are re-stretched, no longer will history define and confine. Vasquez stridently states on ‘Answers’ the bold admission that “my bloodline is a trail of lies” to then go onto to reinstate that “I can’t live this way” although his incessant intonation suggests it’s more a case of ‘won’t than ‘can’t’. Refusal is the first step to redemption.

Sporadically reminiscent of the electronic body music of Front 242 and Deutsche Amerikansiche Freundschaft (especially on ‘The Pit’s throbbing, long, slow, fast, endless descent down towards an unknown climax), or the subterranean schizophonica of compatriots Adult. and Sextile, the post-industrial maniacal-mechanical collapses of Nine Inch Nails (‘Stupid Child’) or on tracks like ‘Monster’ and ‘NADA’ simply channelling the early 1980s post-punk doomed de/re-pressed romanticism of The Cure or on ‘Become the Lies’ the ‘positive punk’ movement of Flesh for Lulu/Brigandage/ Sex Gang Children. These are disinterred memory-jogs of mine, yours could and probably should be different. Or not.

There are two collaborations: on the soul-bleaching, unforgiving ‘Unforgiven’ black, gender non-conforming auteur Alli Logout bares all souls and exorcises all spiritual remnants.

The second is the standout ‘Him’ featuring the curiously monikered Soundcloud-bustin’ Fish Narc. A propulsive crie de cœur, a symphonic cathartic release, voices, noises, choices crashing against each other, smashing into one another, the sensory stimuli of “itchy palms, itchy fingers” the physical manifestations of a troubled soul in need of an embrace. Nerve-shreddingly marvellous.

Title track ‘Exister’ closes proceedings, draws a line in the sands of time, an instrumental ambience suggestive of release, peace, rebirth.

Here’s’ to whatever’s next …