Moura Premiere “Baile Do Dentón” Video from Axexan, Espreitan
Spanish heavy progressive rockers Moura release their new album, Axexan, Espreitan, on May 27, 2022, through Spinda Records. It is the second full-length offering from the A Coruña-based six-piece behind 2020’s self-titled debut (review here), and it finds the lineup of vocalist Belém Tajes (also percussion), vocalist/guitarist Diego Veiga (also organ on “Baile do dentón”), synthesist Fernando Vilaboy, guitarist Hugo Santeiro, bassist Pedro Alberte and drummer Luis Casanova inviting the listener across a cinematic opening three minutes in the instrumental “Alborada do alén” to a world of the band’s own making.
What unfurls following that willfully grandiose drone hum, building subtly with pulsations of synth to add texture and tension as it goes, is a cascade of heavy psychedelic and progressive rock, informed no less by Galician folk music than by the kosmiche. To call it gorgeous is underselling it. On a nearly per-song basis, Axexan, Espreitan changes its approach and presents new ideas, often directly adding to the track before it — as “Romance de Andrés d’Orois” does coming out of the intro — or working in immediate contrast, as with the brief “Cantar do liño” cutting short after two minutes-plus and crashing into the organ-laced bop-prog being taken for a lighthearted walk in the penultimate “Encontro cunha moura fiadeira en Dormeá,” as though the group were leading their audience along a wall of paintings and suddenly saying “now look at this!” with all due excitement.
We’re looking at — or hearing, to drop the simile — Moura‘s representation of Galicia as filtered through their own songwriting impulses. Axexan, Espreitan is presented with an air of homage as the far back vocals begin to cut through the wash of melodic drone and standout guitar strum of “Romance de Andrés d’Orois,” and that extends into everything the band does, from lacing violin in with the guitar that emerges after two minutes into the song — subtle nod to Colour Haze there before the three-minute mark — and with Galician-language lyrics and vocal melodies that call to mind the most serene moments Death Hawks ever had to offer, Moura establish a fluidity of purpose and sound that is lush in its detail, impeccably mixed, and masterful in its transitions from one moment to the next.
That is perhaps best emphasized in the three major movements of nine-minute closer “Lúa vermella,” rolled out across initial mystifying tambourine and a nylon-string acoustic guitar meditation, boasting a return of hurdy-gurdy and a folkish vocal before breaking at around three minutes in to chimes and a cymbal wash of organic experimental percussive ambience, touching back on the quiet guitar before a deeply satisfying, weighted march kicks in to serve as the apex of song and record alike, but it applies to the level of nuance throughout as well, as with the appropriately jazzy snare work on instrumental third cut “Pelerinaxes,” the re-emergence of string sounds at that song’s own crescendo or the blend of synthesized beats and analog percussion amid the chanting of side B opener “Alalá do Abellón,” never mind the duality of Axexan, Espreitan‘s side A launching with no vocals and side B doing basically the opposite.
There are layers, both of sound and presentation, enough to provide a ready listener with years of repeat listens. The motorik takeoff of “Baile do dentón” (video premiering below) picks up from the still-controlled noisy surge at the end of “Pelerinaxes” before it and moves into a neo-space rock boogie that’s full of motion despite the calming vocal echoes laced over top. Thus do Moura engage multiple moods, peace and anxiety, amid the dynamic shifts that put keys over guitars in the mix and seem to pepper in various synth sounds — and, in the end, low-mixed bagpipes — as though called to do so.
The band’s arrangements are a highlight unto themselves, as represented in the aforementioned “Alalá do Abellón,” which follows “Baile do dentón” with a purposeful jump from one style to another, the ritualistic feel of the percussion and voices rising out of the early moments a boon to the atmosphere of Axexan, Espreitan as a whole even as they directly contradict the aesthetic that came before. A radical shift, and one not every band would be nearly brave enough to try, let alone pull off. With a screech and stomp, “Alalá do Abellón” takes off at 2:47 and seems to preface the ending to come in “Lúa vermella” with its consuming volume push, but there’s still the peaceful motion of drums under mellotron in “Cantar do liño” and the crash into “Encontro cunha moura fiadeira en Dormeá” jamming on pastoralist/earliest King Crimson as Veiga and Tajes share vocals and trade off lines in likewise thoughtful fashion ahead of the show of range and scope that is the finale.
And for what it’s worth — plenty — “Encontro cunha moura fiadeira en Dormeá” does have a linear build of its own, and its mellower initial stretch results in weighted, subtly technical turns of rhythm that make for exciting heavy-prog even as they drop out and the already-noted tambourine announces the arrival at “Lúa vermella.” Most of the second half of the song — beginning with the harder-distorted guitar at 5:02 into the total 9:14 — is dedicated to the last central, nodding groove, but even here Moura haven’t lost the thread, with a throatier vocal taking hold amid the moderately-paced roll, and a setup such that as other elements drop out, it’s the residual guitar noise, drums and strings that end the album. Listening to it, you can almost feel the change in the air as the band puts their instruments down, having said what they very much apparently needed to say.
If there is beauty in truth, then Axexan, Espreitan is beautiful. Across its somehow-humble 40 minutes and eight songs, it encompasses a personal expression of identity while remaining loyal to notions of craft both traditional and forward-thinking, sometimes at the same time. As an accomplishment for a band on their sophomore long-player, it is stunning in how it brings together complex ideas and fluidity of rhythm, melody and execution, and it gracefully conveys its depth of emotion and purpose in each moment, each turn it brings about.
There are any number of hyperbolic statements I could make here. I could tell you records like this don’t happen every year. That’s true. I could say that not every band gets to do something this vital at all in their career. That’s true too. I could go on and on and on about Moura taking on past and future alike, or call it one of the best albums of 2022, which it almost certainly will be when the year is done, or any of that kind of stuff. I could do all of that. But until you open your mind and your heart to it in its entirety — yeah, I’m premiering a track and telling you at the same time that a single track doesn’t cut it in representing the album; sorry, I do what I can — there’s just no way to actually know it yourself.
If I’ve earned any trust at all in the 13-plus years I’ve run this site, please believe me when I tell you the world is a better place with this music in it and I think you should hear Moura‘s Axexan, Espreitan.
Recommended.
Enjoy “Baile do dentón” below, followed by preorder links and credits for the clip, etc.
Happy travels:
Moura, “Baile do dentón” video premiere
Preorder links:
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/album/axexan-espreitan
https://spindarecords.com/product/moura-axexa-espreitan
Tracklist ‘Axexan, espreitan’:
1. Alborada do alén
2. Romance de Andrés d’Orois
3. Pelerinaxes
4. Baile do dentón
5. Alalá do Abellón
6. Cantar do liño
7. Encontro cunha moura fiadeira en Dormeá
8. Lúa vermella
Music by Moura, featuring Irmandade Ártabra
Lyrics by Diego Veiga
VIDEO CREDITS
Recorded en A Tobeira de Oza (Alpendre Cultural)
Produced by Spinda Records
Directed, filmed and edited by Goluboff
Written by Diego Veiga & Hugo Santeiro
Associate Producers: Alba Roca & Tania Vila
Supporting Cast: A.C. O Amanexo (María Elena Rodríguez, Andrea Sambad, Natalia María Rodríguez, Fuco Río, Jennifer Portela and Ana Uzal)
Special thanks to Pablo Soto Goluboff, Diego Veiga, Hugo Santeiro, Fernando Vilaboy, Luis Casanova, Pedro Alberte, Belém Tajes, A Tobeira de Oza, Marcos Cenamor, Raúl Lorenzo, David Espasadín, Juan (Malte), Farinarium, Nancy Álvarez, Tania Vila, Alba Roca, Fernando Voyeur, Enrique Otero, Necho Aguado, Tere García, Miguel Vázquez, Antonio Prado, Jota Gutiérrez, Álvaro Gallego, A Cova Céltica, Sergi A. Castells.
MUSIC CREDITS
Diego Veiga: vocals, organ
Hugo Santeiro: guitars
Fernando Vilaboy: synths
Luis Casanova: drums
Pedro Alberte: bass
Belém Tajes: vocals, percussion
+ Irmandade Ártabra:
Fabio Mahía: vocals
Miguel Vázquez: percussion and bagpipes
Produced by Moura & J. Gutiérrez AKA “Guti de Cangas”
Recorded by J. Gutiérrez in Summer 2021 in Moruxo (Spain)
Mixed by J. Gutiérrez in Autumn 2021 in Cangas (Spain)
Mastered by Álvaro Gallego at Agmastering (Spain)
(C) & (P) 2022, Spinda Records
Yes!
I needed a pick-me-up today and getting my order in for this record was just the thing. Have been looking forward to hearing this immensely.
This sounds pretty amazing. It’s posts like these that matter. Thank you.