After being fairly impressed with the debut offering from Moise (Molokai, 2016), I’ve been looking forward to hearing more material from this talented Finnish two-piece and their next release, Batibat, does not disappoint.
Recorded in an old warehouse over the space of ten days, you can definitely sense the rawness in this piece and it works in the band’s favour. The ambience and slight ‘echo’ to the music’s tone adds a lot to the piece as a whole, and although like Molokai the release does get a little repetitive on occasion, it’s still a great listen and something that you can really connect with.
Middle track Vast is perhaps the strongest of the five; it takes you on a musical journey over its ten-minute course and it’s a very rewarding listen. It starts off slow in the beginning before slowly adding more and more to the sound until the listener is presented with a thick and chunky affair that really gets under your skin and the wonderfully fuzzy tone to the guitars in the latter half is fantastic.
It still feels like there’s a little bit of untapped potential waiting to be brought to the surface but all in all this is another strong effort from Molokai, who are surely on the verge of achieving great things.
8/10
