Night Moth has been something of a shapeshifter since its inception in 2018. Originating as the solo project of Emery Spooner, the form and line-up of the project has changed numerous times over the past eight years, expanding and receding according to the situation. Now the Boston project is set to release a self-titled full-length via Worry Bead Records, and has settled on a full band. Miles Chandler (of Clifford), Denzil Leach and Kit Malmberg (both formerly of Squitch) join Spooner. United by a shared desire to return to a purer musical practice, the quartet got to work on material where personal joy and self-expression were prioritsed over anything else. The result is a record inherently personal yet reaching for wider themes too, pouring over experiences of love, loss, growth and hope as microcosms of the wider liberatory, anti-capitalist struggle.
To whet the appetite for the album, Night Moth have shared lead single ‘Rumination Song’, and the track is fittingly titled. For while fans of Squitch might recognise some of the DNA carrying over here, it is recombined into something a little more delicate and restrained. A sound imbued by the warmth of the collaboration which brough it to life, and thus authentic enough to delve into emotional territory with quiet confidence. Which is not to say there’s not a sharp edge to the single, because what makes the compassionate tone all the more striking are the conditions in which it presents itself. A picture of our times in all of their greed and suffering, where desperate people are exploited at there most dire times of need.
Hurting like a child
first finding out life’s not endless
One day you’ll be left breathless
crying out like an animal cause every bone tells you to run
but the headlights are coming from all directions