The Soft Moon - Deeper
- Published in Albums
Relocating to Venice for the recording of Deeper has, it is safe to say, provided Luis Vasquez with plentiful opportunities to make the album as full-on and emotional as he'd wanted to. Whilst the resultant album is not exactly Pretty Hate Machine the likes of 'Wrong' manage to pack a heavier punch both musically and emotionally than you may have up until now credited it possible for The Soft Moon name to be associated with.
Whilst the band's self-titled debut and its follow-up Zeros tended towards their respective ends to feel repetitive in terms of ideas as well as beats Deeper, with its sparse, single word titling manages to be a collection of utterly distinct songs. A lot of which end up being fist-pumpingly life-affirming ('Desertion', 'Black', 'Far') as only the best of such works can be as negative emotions go through the cathartic wringer of expression and come out the other side with their polarity reversed. The freedom of a trouble shared being one halved.
Not that the Stranglers-like bass and other beloved elements of the Soft Moon sound have been sacrificed to some kind of Bauhaus-meets-Depeche Mode bastard disco make-over, they're all still there just with an added amount of pace & urgency amongst the layers of sound providing a propulsive edge to the bulk of the songs. The cold-wave has warmed up somewhat. In fact the album's title track is positively tropically tribal in its sound.
In a live setting there's a very good chance that these 10 songs are going to fast become the highlights of shows, dropped in to build momentum after a few of the older numbers have established the more solemn mood you'd initially expect. In going Deeper Luis Vasquez & producer Maurizio Baggio may have taken a year to come through but it's all light at the other side of this particular tunnel.
