Some music makes you want to be in a rock band.
My first thought on hearing The Luna Moth‘s “Paean” was “oh hey this is live.” You can practially hear the room, maybe even the rain outside, the dark. It starts with a Sabbath-like riff, on a guitar or maybe a bass, I can’t tell. The riff itself describes a phrase, the phrase sounds simple but it’s not, it varies precisely across multiple measures, and repeats at intervals beyond the buffer of my brain’s ability to track it.
There must be some math involved.
There is a musical break from the riff somewhere in the middle, an introduction of chords that says “there was a first half and now it’s done.” The second half is a mirror of the first, relentless, driving.
My inability to track the seemingly simple riff, and the variations of dynamics with drums and another guitar (or bass?), the presence or absence of fuzz — all conspire to make this song keep my attention across what would otherwise be an absurd amount of time (for the attention-span-challenged) of over 10 minutes.
The mood, it’s made for this time of year, this place. This kind of song can inspire a fleet of Northwest basements. I want to be in one.