“Rebirth” sounds like a clearing. The sidewinding passages which made up Moon Human’s sophomore album, Flavorfully Blue, felt as though they were cutting through night fog to get where they’re going. Of course, that is a big part of the album’s appeal, but the clarity of the band’s newest single is a minor revelation. The clouds in the dissonant fury of songs such as “Scarlett Sing” and “Cocaine” have broken for the clarion post-punk here, the title track of the trio’s forthcoming full-length, out July 20th on Seattle’s own Youth Riot Records.
Not to say the musical motifs are identical, but the Moon Human heard on “Rebirth” is reminiscent of the transition from Joy Division — a noted influence on the band — to New Order. Although the personnel here remains the same, there’s a spiritual likeness; this new direction from the band sounds more like a moonlit drive than a dark alley, different sides of the same time of night. On both parts of the song, bassist Jon Duggar and drummer Grant McGilberry find a solid groove as Carter Prince vacillates between synthesizer and guitar effortlessly, using the former to add texture and the latter to cut through and soar over the rhythm section.
Duggar had a few words to say about the recording of the track:
The song was the most long-winded in production as it was done at two different studios months apart. Instrumentally, it was condensed by a number of minutes and was mainly reworked multiple times around the busy drum and bass groove. Carter and I experimented with the guitar and synth layers with the bulk of the guitar parts being completely altered since the original demos of the song. Playing it live has been consistent since it was first in the making over a year ago, and seeing it evolve into what it is on the album has been gratifying. We chose to release it as the first single because we all felt it best represented the shift in direction of the project.
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