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Event
THE SOFT MOON// NOVELLER// MEXICAN KNIVES// DJ DREW POMPA 4/14 @ UFO Factory
Luis Vasquez never intended for The Soft Moon to reach the public's ears; for
him, music has always been about self-actualization rather than selfaggrandizement.
Nevertheless, the bleak, hushed sounds he created years ago
in his small Oakland apartment bubbled to the surface and 2010 saw his debut
LP, The Soft Moon, released on Captured Tracks rise to critical acclaim.
Pitchfork's 8.1 review stated that Vasquez made "oblivion seems like an enticing
prospect" and, indeed, listeners were immediately drawn into his murky musical
wasteland, swathed in the moody atmospheres of jagged dark wave and
wayfaring post-punk. For them, and for Vasquez, there was no turning back. The
Total Decay EP and Zeros emerged soon after, and now Vasquez returns with
The Soft Moon's most introspective and focused album to date: Deeper.
Following live line-up changes and a lull in the The Soft Moon's constant touring
schedule, the year 2013 found Luis Vasquez lost in the void. Though he
fatalistically stated that 2012's Zeros would be the last album where he was the
sole songwriter, Vasquez realized that The Soft Moon has always been one
man's vision. Over time, it's been the one place where Vasquez can express
himself, totally and singularly, on his own terms.
Thus, in July of 2013, Vasquez decamped from Oakland, CA to Venice, Italy,
unsure of where The Soft Moon would land. While Zeros was written and
recorded between long days on the road, Deeper was begat from an almost
primal urge to recoil from the world and experience total solitude. During the
writing process, Vasquez pushed himself to discover the reality and nightmare of
living with yourself, in entirely foreign surroundings with nothing and no one to fall
back on.
Stepping back and letting inspiration fall where it may, Vasquez only had one
goal in mind for his third album: to pen his most emotional record yet. Between
frequent visits to Berlin, Vasquez retreated to Venice's Hate Studios, located in
the mountains near electronic guru and spiritual anchor Giorgio Moroder's
hometown.
At Hate, he worked for almost a year with producer Maurizio Baggio to piece
together Deeper, only completing the album in August 2014. While maintaining
the stark sonic formula so indicative of The Soft Moon's music -- that bass that
reeks of chorus, those unrelenting, mechanized beats, that wailing synthesizer
and those eerily, angular guitar lines that worm into your ears and never leave --Baggio also worked to refine the album's gothic palette, leaving Vasquez to
concentrate more intensely on songwriting and singing than ever before:
"I've never worked so closely with someone before. Working with Maurizio felt
right and I completely opened up to him during the entire process. I finally felt the
urge to express myself more verbally with this record and I was able to focus
more on songwriting rather than just experimenting with soundscapes."
The voice of The Soft Moon has never been more clear and honest than it is on
this record. With eerie, immersive tracks like the dogged "Far" and slow,
beautifully melancholic "Wasting" (the first track written for Deeper), the album is
a penetrating portrait of Vasquez as he wrestles thoughts of suicide, vulnerability
and what it means to heal. By facing the most hopeless parts of himself without
illusion and putting his past demons to bed, the creation of Deeper was an
intense personal exploration of existence for Vasquez -- old wounds were forcibly
opened, deep anger and paranoia were manipulated into song -- and he did not
emerge unchanged. Deeper may have delivered Vasquez back to the waking
world, but it willingly drags us further into The Soft Moon's dark, euphonic
universe once more.
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LocationUFO Factory (View)
2110 Trumbull St
Detroit, MI 48216
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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