Blood Moon Wedding – Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare
Release Date: 7th April 2023
Label: Mobilization Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Punk, Psych Rock, Dark Punk.
FFO: Zounds, Antler Family, Lydia Lunch.
Review By: Hillary Wisniewski
International project Blood Moon Wedding will captivate and intrigue you with their debut release, Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare. ‘Tis a journey, folks, and a blood-soaked, trauma laden, lust driven, and ultimately love-fueled one at that. As a bonus, one of the creators of Blood Moon Wedding is legendary post-punk singer of Zounds, Steve Lake. Seeing his name took me back to the punk show days, and my inner punk child was overjoyed! The muse to Lake’s spoken word fury is Mia Dean. She is a classically trained opera singer and involved with the Oakland group Antler Family. They are accompanied by seasoned musicians Tom Dean (Antler Family, Code Of The West, Oakland Opera), Jason Willer (Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, Charger, Acid King, UK Subs), and David Coulter (The Pogues, Tom Waits, Test Department). According to the press release, the work is “Set in the sprawling deserts of the United States, Lake and Dean find themselves trapped in an alternate reality, where death and love are the only way through the gates of space and time” and it was developed to offer “… a dramatic commentary on the violence in American society.”
Listeners will be swept up in the journey that Lake and Dean are tasked with completing. The landscape is the Southwestern United States: sprawling desert, intense heat, desolate places, and towns with colourful characters sprinkled throughout. These two are in love, but set out for self-destruction and burning everything in their path. I found myself pulled into the story and empathising with the struggles of the characters; the level of psychological depth driving this tale is impressive. The interplay between these lovers underscores the themes of trauma bonding and violence that solidifies their relationship.
Looking at the line-up of this project, one can discern this work is bursting with talent. The guitar on the songs shift between jangly, twangy, and distorted to light and airy elements. The addition of piano, keyboards, violin, and musical saw helps elevate the overall atmosphere. Often the tracks are stripped down and driven by the narration. Dean in particular has a voice that is used as an instrument; when not taking the lead, her contributions to backing vocals add such personality to the songs. Lake and Dean compliment one another and mesh so well together; everything on this album feels organic.It would be easy to summarise each track of Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare since they all paint such a vivid picture; however, it would likely impact one’s ability to listen to this album and appreciate it as the story unfolds. It is this dynamic which makes it such a fantastic record, but because of this, some of the songs may not resonate when taken out of context. Get this album and set aside some proper time to really process it. Maybe woo your next date with it and impress your friends with your ability to choose music that is not only well-crafted, but packed with substance. This is the concept album that you never knew you needed in your life.
(4.5 / 5)
