Simply, moyamoya are a band. They began in a dank warehouse in 2009 as a collaborative project between veteran musicians, meticulously crafting a handful of songs that became their debut self-titled record. The freshman offering grabs your attention from its first wavering guitar riff and holds you hostage until the final ambient resolve.
As a band, moyamoya are complex. To start, the trio brings together over 50 years of experience playing with bands of every imaginable genre. But much of that experience went for naught as one of the band’s first decisions was to switch instruments. Richard Dudley, for years a bassist, plays guitar. Scott Madgett, a guitarist, switched to drums and Brennan Hamill, also a guitarist, picked up keys and bass to round out the sound. This lead to an explorative approach to song crafting, each member feeling their way through the music rather than sticking to the well-worn paths their instruments would normally be limited to.
To add further complexity, the band abandoned all the usual tenants of their craft. At times intentionally, and at others, purely intuitively. First, they dropped the singer. moyamoya is instrumental. Not necessarily by decision but, rather by default. And while the absence of a front-man may be note-worthy at first, it only takes a few measures before you realize that any singer would be irrelevant.
The band, while playing, only settles in any groove long enough to get your head bobbing before jerking you, without warning, to a new time signature or tempo change. By constantly bending and blending genres, they create a truly unique form of audio alchemy. Fluctuating between tightly executed math rock, walls of ear-splitting distorted sludge and extended textural ambience, moyamoya will keep you guessing.
moyamoya’s recordings provide unexpected offerings from an unexpected band; music that you can focus in on to hear all its many intricacies and then pull out from to hear the power and depth.
Theo Tobias' vocals shine on this dynamic and delicate 4-track dose of melancholic indie rock from Manchester, England. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 11, 2016
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The eclectic influences of this California group shine through on these creeping tracks, full of dark electronics and intimate vocals. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 15, 2020