The Box Borealis – Moon and Pollution (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It’s difficult to even begin to write about Moon and Pollution without resorting to my “go to” words. Every writer has their own “go to” words and phrases and due to the nature of the music I get to review mine are ones like shimmering, ethereal, otherworldly, haunting, all of which apply here. But how do I find new words to adequately describe music that seems to document the inner emotions of the human condition and then effortlessly segue into something so vast and expansive that it sounds like the score to the whole universe, to wheeling galaxy’s, to dying stars, the birth of new solar systems and the unfathomable vastness of existence?

I guess that you have to let the music speak for itself, which isn’t the most helpfully thing to say in a music review, but sometimes you just come across music that you really can’t find the words for. I could talk about the trip-hop groove that runs through the album, describe Molly Dean’s lush and hushed vocals or the dynamic play of the creations that move effortlessly from late night chill outs to splintering crescendos of cool electronica and then back again into ambient waves and dying echoes. There are some obvious reference points along the way, the early nineties Bristol scene and particularly Massive Attack, pretty much the starting point of any conversation on the subject anyway, the vocal cross-pollination of Bjork and even Kate Havnevik and of course Portishead.

But this is just one of those times when you have to give up trying to put things into any tangible description and say, just buy the album. So expansive, unique and vast is it in its musical communication that if you don’t immediately fall in love with this band then you should finally admit that music isn’t for you and take up stamp collecting instead.