Short Reviews [Moon Men - 2019 - "3.5...the EP"]

Just a month after the release of ‘3’, Moon Men made available an EP containing just four songs which was 31 minutes in length. It is bookended by two reasonably lengthy pieces, with two longer ones in the middle. One of these, “Around the Solar System in a Tub” is a remix of the song which was a bonus on ‘Uncomfortable Space Probe’ while the other, “Lurching Herman”, actually predates their 2017 debut but was never completed at the time. These two songs account for some 20 minutes of the total length, and here they are captured back in the more experimental phases of their music. It is the latter of these two which to me is the most interesting, here remixed by Ian Beabout (Colouratura). It commences with a spoken section in German, before bringing in percussion, and a bass which tries to keep things melodic while guitars do anything but. This is when Moon Men shine for me, experimental and innovative, listening to no-one but themselves, bringing in brass to make a point, and never giving the listener any indication where the musical journey is going to take them, or how that is going to be achieved. Life is a journey and not a destination, and that is certainly true of the best of Moon Men as while a destination may be a melodic climax, this is rarely going to be the case with these guys as they fight through the woods of RIO, avant-garde, jazz, esoteric and experimental progressive music which is always a damn sight more interesting than middle of the road commerciality. Who wants to sit on a boring highway when there are all these dark and scary tracks to investigate instead? There are times when Art Zoyd are joined by Can, VDGG and others from left field to create something which is incredibly compelling and evocative. To be played on headphones when the time can be given to really listen to it.