Described variously as “nightmare trip-pop” and “dark alt-electro hyperpop,” as intriguing as those labels might be, even they don’t quite get to the heart of what Moons in Retrograde does, such is the adventurous and exploratory nature of the work. The product of musician and multimedia performance artist, Kara Kuckoo, the album actually comes in the form of 2 EPS, Anima and Animus together designed to reflect the duality and polarized nature of the world, sonic opposites that balance each other, that war between perfection and chaos, harmony and violence that the universe seems to turn on.
If Mirror Obscura welcomes us into the world of Anima with a darkwave-infused, trip-hop blend of spacious sonics and liquid pulses, then “The Shadow Dance” explores territories more often home to the likes of Trent Reznor, via a buzzsaw groove, and a heady balance of menace and ethereality. Continuing the album’s mercurial nature, “Rust” is a glitchy take on alt-pop, accessible and artful, contagious yet subversive.
Head into Animus and we find equally compelling and original sounds – the clockwork beats and strutting energy of “The Edge of Entropy,” the beauty and bombast of “The Rotten Tree” (later found remixed into a cinematic electro-opera in its own right), and gnashing, pounding, clubland rhythms of “Taxidermy Mouse.”
As debut albums go, this is impressive stuff. Not for Kara Kuckoo the faltering steps or conformity of the first foray into the music world. This is the sound of someone who knows where they want to go and does so, hoping genres, taking no prisoners, and leaving a changed musical landscape in their wake.
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