“I think the music I love the most has both an immediate and layered quality,” explained Sam Cantor of Minor Moon when we discussed the album Tethers back in 2021. The record was one of interwoven styles and themes, touching on everything from ideas of freedom and nihilism to Walter Benjamin’s concept of messianic time, though made a conscious effort to first and foremost hook the audience on a more instinctive level. “It was a big area of growth for me as a songwriter and producer,” Cantor continued, “to work harder to actively invite the listener in rather than just say what I had to say.”
With a new full-length on the horizon, Minor Moon has this month returned with a new single ‘Miriam Underwater’ on Ruination Records, and the song is a further development of this intention. A song fleet-footed and fluid, living up to its title in the manner in which its liquid rhythm ripples and flows. Jason Ashworth (bass, percussion), Max Subar (pedal steel), Chet Zenor (guitar), Sam Subar (drum kit, percussion), V.V. Lightbody (vocals), Dustin Laurenzi (tenor saxophone) and Hunter Diamond (clarinet) help bring the sound to life, landing on an infectious psych-inflected style which seems informed by the halfway fantastical lyrics it holds. The tale of a narrator cut off from his shapeshifting lover by the alluring depths of the sea.
Miriam, Miriam
Miriam underwater
Rippling, shimmering
Miriam underwater
I know you love me and you know I cannot follow
There’s something nothing but the water can give
Missing you, Miriam
Miriam underwater
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=61237452 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3539388657]
Miriam Underwater b/w Ice Fishing is out now and available from the Minor Moon Bandcamp page.
Original cover artwork by Jordan Martins