Nothing To Lose – Moon and Aries (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I always find Moon and Aries challenging to place in the musical landscape. But rather than being a detriment, I see that as a positive factor. After all, if they were easily pinned down or pigeonholed, wouldn’t that mean they make music that we have heard before? Music instantly recognisable?

They are not hard to pin down because they are doing something radical; their music doesn’t result from strange sonic fusions in midnight laboratories or taking existing music to the extreme. Far from it. But whilst you can recognise the building blocks of their songs, the creative and instrumental elements that they use to make their music, the resulting sonic architecture that is startlingly unique.

And Nothing to Lose is a perfect example of what they are all about. The music is serene and seductive, distant saxophones washing over an electronic landscape, digital beats providing the gentle energies, beguiling synth washes ebbing and flowing, and that gorgeous, soulful voice drifting along the top.

It is music that builds a bridge between the 90’s trip-hop heyday and the dreamier end of modern, chilled dance. It connects those early keyboard pioneers who first had to create their technologies before they could fully explore the sound that was bursting to get out, with the cinematic and ambient music makers of today. It brings the infectiousness of pop to a more neo-soul soundscape.

I told you it was hard to categorise. It’s best just to play the track and make up your mind. Actually, don’t even try to work out what it is or where it fits in; love the music for the sake of loving it. And you will.