The London-based label AD 93 continues down their strikingly hypermodern path, releasing groundbreaking and genre-elusive albums from feeo, James K, YHWH Nailgun, Joanne Robertson, Olan Monk’s album with guest appearances by 4AD artist Maria Somerville, neoclassical from Wojciech Rusin, and two singular post-rock albums by Moin heard on "You Never End", and the "Belly Up" EP. Arriving stateside for a brief west coast tour this spring, including a date at Seattle's Vera Project, Moin are an extension of the work of Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead, who composed notable electronic, rhythmic, post-rock concrete albums for the Blackest Ever Black label as Raime. Their debut full length,"Quarter Turns Over A Living Line" rated on many 2012 albums of the year lists, including The Wire, garnering praise and attention from both the electronic music and avant-rock communities, a cross-genre corner which they explored in discussion with The Quietus, "Intricate Shadows: An Interview with Raime".
For Moin, Halstead and Andrews are joined by percussionist and drummer Valentina Magaletti, who's work has graced collaborations as varied as punk legends Wire, with her ongoing post-rock ensemble, Vanishing Twin, experimental sounds from Tomaga, and contributed percussion to works by Nicolas Jaar, Mica Levi, Bat for Lashes, and last year's exquisite album from Cate Le Bon. Speaking with The Wire on working within the parameters of everything from free jazz improv to dreampop to gamelan, the prolific London-based drummer discusses keeping her options open, "Dada Don't". The Guardian best assesses the meeting of their skills and the assembly of works that are seemingly birthed from collage and construction, as though "Moin Take a Craft Knife to 90s Indie", in the band's creation of sinewy post-punk grooves with layers of vocals, samples and drums. The Quietus digs into the components of this sound, finding that it is a reassembly of fresher, more sinewy grooves than those heard from Raime, while continuing to channel riffs and textures familiar from the duo. The uncanny addition of chopped-and-screwed-style vocal samples sit alongside raw concrete noise, sounds of laughter and breaking glass, with Magaletti's drums featuring prominently in the mix, collaged into careful and sparse constructions of reduction and dynamic minimalism.
