From the ashes of some of Kent’s hardcore bands of yesteryear, come a very promising band and a sweeping, strong EP. With a lot of attention and some big name support slots recently, Moose Blood have turned a few heads and are set to turn more in the near future. ‘Moving Home’ is the catalyst for all of this.
Another of those instrumental intros begins the EP, but ‘My Own Boat’ kicks this record off better than you might first expect, without feeling like it’s dragging. Soon enough ‘Evening Coffee’ and ‘Drive’ introduce you to the bands lyrical style, filled with heartfelt imagery alongside feeling ok, not feeling ok, long drives and trying to impress girls. It might be predictable of the genre, but that still takes nothing away from the fact that this band can write beautifully.
Complete with emo stereotyped vocals akin to someone yelling at you down a long corridor, ‘Carbis Bay’ is another standout track. Starting off by referencing past emo-giants like American Football and Dashboard Confessional, the song practically features a vocal-less chorus, where the ringing guitars sound rousing enough to not even need anything above them.
After ‘Moving Home’, a mellower, slower jam on returning to a hometown, the EP closes with ‘Bukowski’. If there’s any one track on this record you need to hear, this is obviously it. There’s more referencing to bands they obviously hold close to their hearts, through melodies that sit over the rest of the band better than anywhere previous. They’ll be many a person singing the chorus back at them when they get this one out live, it’d be hard not to with the warm infectious feeling of hopefulness it delivers.
Kent’s music scene is getting more and more back on its feet as time goes on and this is another great act to see coming out of the county. The fact they don’t sound all that British doesn’t seem to matter at all when a band can pull it off as well as this. The fact of the matter is, Moose Blood are really exciting for all the right reasons on ‘Moving Home’, but it’s even more exciting thinking about all this potential, and how far it could take them.
JAMES FOX