The Soft Moon: "Black"

There is absolutely no humor in the Soft Moon‘s music, but “Black” is still a bit funny. Over the past five years, Luis Vasquez has used this project to incorporate post-punk, no-fi industrial, coldwave, noise and every other indie genre typically described as “bleak” or “nihilistic” within the most minimal pop structure—any of his previous songs could have conceivably been named “Black”. Is there none more black than this one?

That’s the joke—the first single from Deeper is one of Soft Moon’s least suffocating and desolate tracks to date. As a pop song, it’s a complete inversion: the stuttering, tinny hi-hats serve as the hook, whereas Vazquez’s hyperventilated vocals have more of a percussive effect, huffing monotone anti-melodies doubled by his pitch-shifted self. And it’s every bit as unyielding as Soft Moon’s previous work, mercilessly driving forward to a coda of warping synth shrieks, Vazquez emerging out of the black hole into white noise.

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