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Moomin Yesterday's Tomorrows Wolf Music

18.05.18

The title of Moomin’s third LP, Yesterday’s Tomorrows alludes to the kind of music that comprises most of the album – past-revering, with nods to more contemporary sounds.

The album is in two halves. The first is made up of four very safe, very conservative and totally inoffensive deep house tracks that are difficult to get excited about. The second half is more interesting: two drum ‘n’ bass tracks and two instrumental hip-hop tunes that, while still bound by the conventions of those genres, are identifiably ‘Moomin-esque’; naggingly melancholic, and simple in a profound, pleasing way. Despite only having three chords, Into the Woods is a great example of how to effectively pace a drum ‘n’ bass track. After the first couple of minutes, the tune falls away. Then, the silence is pulverised by the kind of sub-bass that would set ravers grinning, punch-drunkenly, until the break cracked across their eardrums and compelled their weary limbs back to dancing.

Fruits, which closes, is another highlight, and showcases Moomin’s talent for blissed-out loops and Dilla-esque beats. While neither is groundbreaking stuff, it is refreshing to see a producer known mostly for doing one thing very well try other things. The deep house of complex jazz chords played on a Fender Rhodes chained rigidly to a four-to-the-floor beat is getting increasingly conservative, workmanlike and dull. Moomin deserves praise for trying to break out of it.