MOONBLADDER
MOONBLADDER “Dark Sky Equilibrium”
By Dr. Abner Mality
I thought the name MOONBLADDER sounded familiar and it drove me nuts trying to think of where I had heard it before. I found out it was actually the title of an album put out by SNARE OF SIXES, the ambient/electronic project (or one of them) from Jason Walton of AGALLOCH and SCULPTURED fame. And it can be considered a continuation of the sound summoned up by that outfit.
This is pure spookhouse electro/industrial, full of mysterious bleeps, creaks, drones and whispers. It is presented as one track lasting about 23 minutes, but seems to be made of many discrete bits. This comes across like a tribute to every dark electronic subgenre you can think of. There’s creeping synth beats, waves of pulsing tones, almost EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN clattering racket and sinister whispers and mutters. It really does sound like a trip through a dystopian funhouse, with each room having its own soundscape. But it all flows smoothly together, finally ending in a series of nothing but unnerving whispering.
The PR package makes this sound very apocalyptic, but only a few parts are really noisy. It’s nothing like the power electronics torture of MERZBOW and other such groups. If you listen hard enough, you can even hear some echoes of AGALLOCH focused through an electronic nightscape. If you enjoyed SNARE OF SIXES and dark soundscapes in general, this is definitely worth a listen.