Album Review : The Moi Non Plus - The Moi Non Plus
- Written by Danny Wadeson
Following in the proud tradition of loud, occasionally psyched-out garage rock two-man noise machines (think Fuck Buttons, White Stripes, Japandroids, Lighting Bolt) Amsterdam based The Moi Non Plus exert a masterful control over dissonance, tribal rhythms and psych-garage walls of noise. Droning, almost doggedly monotonous guitar riffs make way to crazed wailing. A rare sample accompanies an even rarer snatch of melody; haunting, compelling and likely to set you on edge.
Be warned though; much like some of the aforementioned bands, this isn’t immediately accessible stuff. This is music that absolutely demands to be cranked up, to strain your speakers and smother your senses. This is not intellectual music, nor is it soulful or trying to make a statement; it’s visceral, honest and occasionally exhausting.
Second track ‘Jill Sander Makes Your Eyes Black’ is essentially a grating three-note riff set to segments of feedback and shouts synched with seemingly lazy snare hits. Following this is ‘I Lie’; a whispered then screamed chant of “don’t you ever find don’t you ever find” that gives way to the relentlessly monotonous riff of ‘Where Is Everything?’. The effect is somewhat mesmeric, TMNP obviously relying on their minimalist aesthetic in a bid to escape sounding derivative or unoriginal.
Depending on your willingness to buy into their brooding soundscapes, this effort could easily overshoot its mark into ‘unlistenable’ territory. As the album progresses things become relatively more conventional and melodic, even encroaching ....Trail of Dead territory in ‘What If We Do It’ at points. Indeed, though this track is a highlight of the album it demonstrates a central conflict of the album; such songs would be less poignant but for the darker, more sparse moments of the first half of the album but still leave you wondering if you’d enjoy more of the same.
Luckily, ‘Sudden Impact’, which immediately follows, is another stand-out track; a slice of carefree vocals and the jangle of guitar chords following an atmospheric but not dissonant two minute build up. It’s an extremely well judged interlude of sorts, and paves the way for the even stronger, less belligerent latter half of the album.
The Moi Non Plus are a fantastic juxtaposition, as are their languidly manic, long swathes of dissonance followed by almost sensitive snatches of melody. In translation, The Me No More certainly don’t have an identity crisis; they know exactly who they are, what they’re doing, and luckily for everyone involved, they know damn well how to do it.