Through the gentle beat and surrounded by melodic instrumentation that could have done more than enough to tell us the context of what we’re soon to hear coming out of our stereo speakers, we find a soft voice of vitality amid “Light of the Moon” by Red Matter, the dreaminess of the nearby musicality seamlessly entwining with the words. Profoundly emotional and seductively relatable when we’re least expecting it to be, “Light of the Moon” is a lyrical showcase for Red Matter, and in my opinion, an excellent demonstration of what they are capable of producing inside of the recording studio.
There’s a great tonality to the guitar parts in this song, and on more than one front, they complement the vocal rather perfectly. The strumming is warm and richly textured, arguably even more than the serenade is during a couple of critical junctures of the track. Tightly mixed beside the ebbtide of synthetic melodicism on the left and a surreal void, later filled by percussive beats as mild as they are sensuous, the strings that adorn the front of “Light of the Moon” are essentially what makes this single the landmark release for this band that it inarguably is.
The bass element in this track is a little heavier than it needed to be and not as tempered as I had expected it would be, but it contributes to this wonderfully indulgent pop edge in the music that I dig as a fan. There’s a post-FM sensibility to the construction of the harmony-based hook in this song, and if it were to be expanded upon in a live setting, there’s no telling how captivating the show could get. Red Matter is teasing a multilayered songcraft here, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of it in the future.
As far as production quality goes, “Light of the Moon” is sparkling with pop varnish, but its atmospheric elements make this very varnish yet another component of the surrealism in the song. You could take the lyrics here at face value, and the melodies that surround them in the same fashion, but to me, there’s just too fanciful of a narrative in play within every angle of this track to dismiss Red Matter’s sound as conventional. This is a unique approach they’re taking to a tried and true model, and I for one really like the level of ambitiousness.
While I only got into Red Matter just in the last couple of weeks, I’m curious to hear what kind of thought-provoking content they are going to come up with in the next couple of years. They’ve got a lot of potential concerning their songwriting abilities, and if this is a good indicator as to how far they can push the envelope when the mood is right, I can see them developing quite a loyal following in the American underground throughout a hot spring season. I’ll be keeping an eye on their growth, and I think anyone who loves great soft rock should do the same.
Chadwick Easton