Pulsated by Kraut-rock timing, revolving dark-wave synths welcome “Insides” before a wall of noise soars in and crashes. Above music that howls like wind, Luis Vasquez oozes out vocals that pull you into the void of nightmare hypnosis. His weeps of pain stir like ghosts above a storming ocean of enough layered noise to drown in. Similar to the visual projections during the band’s live performances, “Insides” immerses and captivates. The Soft Moon inhales the listener, deep into black lungs where ego has a decent chance of being erased.
Isolated in his Oakland home, Vasquez recorded the self-titled Soft Moon debut in 2010. After touring with a full band (including visual artist Ron Robinson), Luis Vasquez went alone into the studio to record the last Soft Moon solo album. Home recording has become the strategy for many solo artists, thus seeing Vasquez using professional studio time all by himself distinctly shows a dedication to full creative control. Released by Captured Tracks one day before halloween, 2012’s Zeros unveiled the result of such an inward journey.
Winding up tension of high-pitched synth with pounding percussion, the album-opener “It Ends” begins the journey at a frantic pace. A reverse track of that song is what closes the album, which results in a very abstract blur of of windy noise. The hand-drum heavy “Want” shows a cooled-off and tribal side to the music. Echoing the less-florescent side of the 1980s, post-punk influences form artists like Bauhaus and Joy Division can be heard in all of these songs. Vasquez’s screams and shouts sound far away, buried within the place inside himself that was discovered during the lonely production of this album. Zeros resembles a violent and terrifying scene impossible to look away from, a sonic spider web that traps us all like flies.