we are idle moon
Idle Moon is a British Columbia based four-piece instrumental band whose songs feature well crafted, soulful grooves that range from the hard hitting to the melancholy.
Their debut record NOMAD is triumphant and definitive, weaving the listener through a soundscape that tells the story of the birth and death of the planet.
NOMAD, just like our lives, is at times brusque but also winding and gentle like a slow moving river. Guitar player Leathan Milne says ‘We tried to write and arrange the material so it would fit the mood of the time period we were describing. For example in the opening track ‘The Endless Nothing’ we really wanted to capture the mood of floating out in the endless expanse of space before the universe even existed.”
The tandem of birth and death are an ever present concept throughout the record. From the birth of the planet in ‘Time Moves Forward’ to the inevitable extinction of life as we know it in the aptly titled, and final track of the album, ‘Death of the Species.’ Milne points out ‘We didn’t have intentions of making this a dark record or to try and have any agenda with what we were trying to convey musically. It just seems to be the direction humans are going in.’
Musically NOMAD is as diverse as one would expect of an album with this subject matter. From the crunchy guitars and distorted keyboards of ‘The Long Survival’ to the melancholy and meandering grooves of Floating in Plastic, this album is a musical embodiment of the story it tries to convey.
Idle Moon emerges alongside a generation of musicians whose approach to instrumental music is both set in the influence of the past but also looks to a new and interesting future. Being heavily influenced by artists like The Meters, Mulatu Astatke and Fela Kuti, Idle Moon deftly weaves the traditional with the new, creating a sound all their own.
Recorded live to tape and mixed over the course of two days at Afterlife Studios by John Raham (Frazey Ford, Destroyer), Idle Moon features four veterans of the Vancouver music scene and includes members of Pugs and Crows and Miami Device. NOMAD was mastered by Philip Shaw Bova (Bahamas, Andy Shauf) and was released on March 31st, 2023.
Their debut record NOMAD is triumphant and definitive, weaving the listener through a soundscape that tells the story of the birth and death of the planet.
NOMAD, just like our lives, is at times brusque but also winding and gentle like a slow moving river. Guitar player Leathan Milne says ‘We tried to write and arrange the material so it would fit the mood of the time period we were describing. For example in the opening track ‘The Endless Nothing’ we really wanted to capture the mood of floating out in the endless expanse of space before the universe even existed.”
The tandem of birth and death are an ever present concept throughout the record. From the birth of the planet in ‘Time Moves Forward’ to the inevitable extinction of life as we know it in the aptly titled, and final track of the album, ‘Death of the Species.’ Milne points out ‘We didn’t have intentions of making this a dark record or to try and have any agenda with what we were trying to convey musically. It just seems to be the direction humans are going in.’
Musically NOMAD is as diverse as one would expect of an album with this subject matter. From the crunchy guitars and distorted keyboards of ‘The Long Survival’ to the melancholy and meandering grooves of Floating in Plastic, this album is a musical embodiment of the story it tries to convey.
Idle Moon emerges alongside a generation of musicians whose approach to instrumental music is both set in the influence of the past but also looks to a new and interesting future. Being heavily influenced by artists like The Meters, Mulatu Astatke and Fela Kuti, Idle Moon deftly weaves the traditional with the new, creating a sound all their own.
Recorded live to tape and mixed over the course of two days at Afterlife Studios by John Raham (Frazey Ford, Destroyer), Idle Moon features four veterans of the Vancouver music scene and includes members of Pugs and Crows and Miami Device. NOMAD was mastered by Philip Shaw Bova (Bahamas, Andy Shauf) and was released on March 31st, 2023.