MOON RELAY - Iddy Umpty

Moon Relay has over almost 15 years developed into an Oslo underground institution. Not in the sense that they are very popular, but in the sense that they create music that is so stubborn, loud and adventurous it turns delectable. Their new album IDDY UMPTY is at once surprisingly aggressive, surprisingly relentless and surprisingly beautiful. Inspired by the philosophy and politics of 90s underground music, and bands that put their sound before their image and any other industry concern, Moon Relay never underestimates the listener. Their work, floating somewhere between noise rock, electronic beats, repetitive forms and electroacoustic music, is not about being innovative, but about being surprising and explorative. They work with songs, but allow the songs to travel. Track 2 on IDDY UMPTY, aptly titled .. , sounds like a blues pattern that slowly discovers its own shape and starts pushing itself into unfamiliar territory. Later, track 4, …. , dresses up a beautiful, gentle chord progression in spirals of intertwining guitars and synth lines. The entire album works like this, pushing ideas into the deep. The title IDDY UMPTY refers to a card game that quickly teaches you morse code. But the phrase also resembles Humpty Dumpty, the nursery rhyme character that falls and can’t be put back together, even by all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. Such a reference fits the album perfectly: An abstracted, childlike reference that is also a subversive association game. It’s perfect because Moon Relay takes everything apart: Language, song titles, genre, everything that is encoded in a music release, has fallen and smashed to pieces that recreate beautiful, angular and addictive art.

Vinyl release of Moon Relay - Iddy Umpty. Released through SHEEP CHASE RECORDS and available on LP.