The Beat Surrender

I’m gutted I’ve not heard about this band sooner, this is unbelievably the bands twelfth album to date, which when you consider that they’ve only been around since 1993 is a pretty impressive output, how many other bands or artists do you know who actually release one album a year for that length of time?

The achievement is made all the more impressive by the fact that Moonshot don’t currently have a record deal, the albums are sold on the bands website, a website that is worth a visit to get more information on the band as well as samples used in the songs and a full discography.

I think one of the reasons for the longevity of the band is that it appears to be run as a democracy. They don’t technically have a front man; all three members of the band (Daniel Kent, Richard Wolfe and Jeremy Grant) are all involved in the song writing as well as the singing duties.

Fear Today, Gone Tomorrow oozes with a stylish sheen, which was my first surprise, a lot of the self released material I get sent to review is lacking on the production front or has a ‘tinny’ sound to it. This though isn’t the case here; it’s as good sound wise as anything you’ll hear from a professionally released record.

My second surprise with this being an electronica album was the lyrics, its nice to hear a band producing this type of music and actually putting some thought into the lyrics as well as the music. Think my favourite track on the album is because of the sniping lyrics on Kens Vision, an acerbic wit runs through the song writing and that’s never clearer than on this track.

Making Decisions opens the album and shows why comparisons to New Order have been made, it’s an urgent beat that dominates the track, Counting Sheep is far mellower yet is ultimately a sorrowful sounding track, giving you the first hint that there is darkness behind this album. Near the end of the album you get an outright sinister track called 38 years, it’s an absolute epic.

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