Moths & Locusts Premiere Title-Track of New LP Exoplanets
Exoplanets is the fourth long-player from British Columbia space rockers Moths & Locusts, due out Oct. 30 through NoiseAgonyMayhem and Weird Beard Records. “Exoplanets” is also the 15:39 title-track of said album, and from its quietly progressive flute-included opening through the gradual unfolding of harmonized vocals and opera of cosmic noise that builds to fruition across its first six-plus minutes, only to recede into airy drift and fuzz as it meanders through its midsection, through an ensuing stretch of barely-there minimalism, darker-atmosphere krautrock vocal manipulations and the fed-through-a-grinder tonality that typifies its final movement, it is only fair to call it alien.
The six-piece outfit recorded “Exoplanets” itself with James Paul in Toronto at what was apparently once a slaughterhouse — fair enough — and it’s one of at least four separate sessions in which the recording took place, the other out in rural Saskatchewan at Sinewave Studios with Chad Mason at the helm, the third at Lap of Luxury in Sooke, Vancouver Island, with Scott Henderson, and the last in the band’s studio, Republic of Doom, in Nainamo.
So, the numbers: Seven tracks, 44 minutes, six players, four studios, infinite freakout.
Comprised of vocalists Valentina Cardinalli and Samantha Letourneau (also flute), guitarists Angus Barter (also vocals) and Mike Breen (also electric sitar on “Exoplanets”), and the doubly-Dave’d rhythm section of bassist/synthesist Dave Read and drummer/vocalist Dave Bean, Moths & Locusts are simply too cognizant to not be progressive and at the same time too weird not to be experimental. Oh yes, most certainly Exoplanets opens with the five-minute fuzz-from-space rocker “Cocaine Kangaroo” tapping modern and classic heavy interstellarism with a hook to boot as it pushes outward in motorik fashion toward and through a jam and finish of residual synth en route to the percussive thud of “Ghenghis Khan,” which indulges some orientalism in its guitar, flute and chant-like vocal, but is also explosive and bombastic at its loudest, despite the flute tying its loud and quiet parts together. Low end drone adds an undercurrent layer behind the more out-there stretch, and by the time the song comes back around to its verse, Moths & Locusts have established their own sense of normality so that the return feels grounding when in fact it’s still ethereal in the extreme.
Setting their own context is a lot of what Moths & Locusts do on Exoplanets. Certainly in the title-track, but consider 
too the short acoustic guitar/synth/effects/chant piece “Nero’s Surgery,” which at 2:28 is the briefest cut but still more substantial arrangement-wise than an interlude. That acoustic strum takes hold after “Ghenghis Khan” and by the time it starts, the listener simply goes with it.
Track turns into layers of synth battling for dominance over stretched-out guitar and chants? In under two and a half minutes? Well of course it does. But the reason Moths & Locusts are able to bring so many disparate ideas together and make it flow over the course of the whole LP isn’t just because they’re willing to do so — though rest assured, that’s part of it — but because they establish almost immediately that Exoplanets is going to shift according to these whims.
“A Ram Named Drama” somewhat revives the motorik-ness of “Cocaine Kangaroo,” bringing a prominent and welcome bassline-as-baseline sensibility to the explorational guitar and effects work surrounding. Instrumental save for a spoken sample, it feels improvised and is no less whole for that, capping with birdsong before the more charged “Avulsion 2020” arrives to close side A.
An apparent redux of “Chase River Avulsion” from Moths & Locusts‘ 2011 debut 7″ The Astronomical Significance Of…, “Avulsion 2020” joins “Nero’s Surgery” (which showed up on a 2013 single as the B-side to “Nero’s Tale”) and “Cocaine Kangaroo” (which recorded in 2016 and released in 2018 to accompany “Peyote Coyote”) among Exoplanets‘ at-least-in-part-previously-issued material, but if the group are looking back on their decade together and perhaps making some effort to summarize that time, that would account for the scope one encounters moving between the tracks, such as the robot-voice oddity that comes with “Avulsion 2020” and of course “Exoplanets” itself, which consumes the bulk of side B.
Its doing so leaves “Fresh Red Blood” to close out the record, which it does with an atmospheric comedown vibe, not so much giving up the journey or even landing at its destination as offering a moment of epilogue to the stage of passage that Exoplanets might represent on the longer voyage. Or maybe that’s too meta.
Whatever. The finale answers the patience with which the title-track unfurls with a gradual wash of melodic guitar and synth, seeming to harness stability out of liquefaction, and ending the pattern of who-knows-what like a breathing exercise that’s readying listeners to return to their real lives after being so immersed in Moths & Locusts‘ preternatural quirk. Those six minutes are no less crucial than anything before them, of course, and they complete Exoplanets in a way that gives the audience space to process that preceding undertaking, though to be fair to both the band and their listenership, that might take a bit longer given how deep into far-out the band range in these songs.
I have the pleasure today of hosting the premiere of “Exoplanets” from Exoplanets. You’ll find it below, followed by more info on the various recording sessions from the PR wire.
Enjoy:
2020 marks ten years of existential exploration for Nanaimo BC space rock sextet MOTHS & LOCUSTS, a decade that saw the band release a trio of acclaimed LPs (2013’s Mission Collapse, 2016’s Helios Rising and 2017’s Intro/Outro) alongside numerous assorted EPs and 7” singles. In addition to the aforementioned albums under their own name, they also released a double live album with legendary Can frontman Damo Suzuki in 2014, plus 2019’s Think Pink IV: Return to Deep Space collaboration album with Pink Fairies/Pretty Things man Twink.
Showing only signs of acceleration with time, their 4th LP EXOPLANETS distills several studio recording sessions from across Canada into seven elemental songs that reflect a band at the height of their power.
The album’s centerpiece is the six part, near-16-minute long title track. Exoplanets is a visceral tour through a sonic spectrum of intense emotions and otherworldly landscapes, from the haunting primary melody, through layered vocal harmonies to the cathartic, crushing climax. Recorded with engineer James Paul in a former abattoir in downtown Toronto, each band member features prominently on the track, displaying the musical versatility the band is becoming known for: guitarist Angus Barter & drummer Dave Bean’s harmony vocals on the verses bring to mind pre-Dark Side era Pink Floyd; Samantha Letourneau’s layers of flute in the opening has an element of prog rock; lead guitarist Mike Breen’s serpent-like shredding (and electric sitar) is strategically placed to drill straight through listeners’ skulls. The track ends with vocalist Valentina Cardinalli’s soulful wailing and bassist Dave Read’s massive effects-laden doom choir pushing the speakers to the max.
From a session with engineer Chad Mason at Sinewave Studios, located literally in the middle of Saskatchewan canola fields and reachable only via longitude & latitude coordinates, come crushing versions of live favourites Cocaine Kangaroo and Genghis Khan, the latter remixed by Ian Blurton (Change Of Heart/C’mon/Public Animal). The Saskatchewan session also yielded the album’s closing track Fresh Red Blood, evoking some of Mogwai’s recent soundtrack work.
From closer to the band’s home base of Vancouver Island BC comes triple bass psych freakout A Ram Named Drama, recorded by Scott Henderson at his Lap Of Luxury studio in Sooke; and from the band’s own Republic Of Doom studio in Nanaimo come the tracks Nero’s Surgery and Avulsion 2020. All seven tracks together form a cohesive album, one that perfectly ends one decade and begins another for a band that’s built to last.
EXOPLANETS is a co-release by NoiseAgonyMayhem Records (North America) and Weird Beard Records (EU).
Tracklist:
Cocaine Kangaroo 5:00
Genghis Khan 5:59
Nero’s Surgery 2:28
A Ram Named Drama 5:29
Avulsion 2020 3:54
Exoplanets 15:39
Fresh Red Blood 6:02
Moths & Locusts are:
Angus Barter – guitar, vocals
Dave Bean – drums, vocals
Mike Breen – guitar, electric sitar on “Exoplanets”
Valentina Cardinalli – vocals
Samantha Letourneau – flute, vocals
Dave Read – bass guitar, synths
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Tags: British Columbia, Canada, Exoplanets, Moths & Locusts, Moths & Locusts Exoplanets, Nanaimo, NoiseAgonyMayhem Records, Weird Beard Records
