Room for the Moon is thrillingly weird experimental pop
For obvious reasons, I’ve had Moon on my mind all week. So I was trying to figure out what I should recommend this week that would fit the theme. Brian Eno’s Apollo: atmospheres and soundtracks is incredible, and if you haven’t listened to it, go do so now. But it also seemed a bit ridiculous. Radiohead A moon-shaped swimming pool also came to mind. But it also seemed a bit obvious. Then I remembered Kate NV Make way for the Moona record that I had on repeat in 2020.
Russian artist Kate Shilonosova continues her ideas through 11 tracks inspired by Russian and Japanese pop from the 70s and 80s, as well as children’s films. This obviously leads Make way for the Moon to satisfy his most fanciful impulses. It’s a fairy tale rendered with lively Talking Heads-style bass, proggy synths and reverbed drum machines.
Opener “Not Not Not” is almost zany, its chaotic melodies constantly dancing around each other in a perpetually disorienting manner. It advances asymmetrically, grooving like a flat tire. The instrumental “Da Na” follows, relying on a familiar yet slightly strange palette of sounds. The clarinet (?) moves in and out of dissonance as if drunk. Tuned percussion elements flit around what could be a shaker of kenari seeds or someone running their fingers over the teeth of a comb. It’s really impossible to say, and both seem equally likely.
“Sayonara (Full Moon Version)” is the fantastical, dreamlike counterpart to the nightmarish new wave theater of Oingo Boingo. The least strange track on the record is probably “Plans,” which fully embraces the ’80s dance pop aesthetic. But even that song finds room for a minute-long instrumental passage with a bleating, almost atonal saxophone solo.
Although the sounds are strange, uneasy and almost nauseating at times, the songs are light and fantastical. Even though we don’t understand the lyrics, which are mostly in Russian, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of hope in them. Kate NV Make way for the Moon is not a dark lunar lullaby, but the pleasant dreams of an innocent mind.
