Oceans of the Moon and their unapologetic debut

Providence, Rhode Island has a breadth of noise rock bands, such as Arab on Radar, Lightning Bolt, and Black Dice. The band Oceans of the Moon, formed a few years ago in the same locale, portrays a Minimalist Punk persona that separates them from its genre in experimental and noise-punk rock.Oceans of the Moon guitarist Richard Ivan Pelletier, drummer Jon Loper and synthesizer Dare Matheson, somewhat gravitate away from the typical lyrical-screaming of the noise genre. The band offers a sober, often repetitive, instrumentation. However, Petellier still effectively tinges Six Finger Satellite’s frenetic pace into the band’s eight-track, self-titled album.

Despite the band’s predictable nature, Oceans of the Moon, does not give a single-damn about what their critiques may say about their overt repetitiveness. The band’s playful incongruities between its first two tracks. “Hope Will Pass” sustains a petrifyingly long note in its intro and “Baby Chiffon” offers a funky guitar instrumentation. The former track opens a transcendental, ill-lit portal, while the latter track jumps into a rhythmically funky feeling. Both “Hope Will Pass” and “Baby Chiffon” are emblematic of the album’s ’70s and ’80s influences, which connotes the band’s ambivalence towards being pigeon-holed into any genre.

Oceans of the Moon exerts a pandemonium of frolic in the album tracks “I’m On A Roll” and “Borderline,” shocking the faint of hearts with the band’s gritty arrangements, elevated by Matheson’s post-modern style on the synth. In contrary, the track “Shazzamatazz” highlights Pelletier’s straightforward, reprised guitar riffs. Loper’s impeccable rhythm balances both Matheson’s and Pelletier’s experimentation all throughout the band’s eight-track album. In Oceans of the Moon’s “Sully” and “Bill Fill”, on the other hand, transition to a more DIY-rock rhythm, filled of lyrically comedic threats. Both tracks are more palatable to an audience whose either music exploration had just begun or whose taste gravitates toward angsty song lyrics and away from a more focused-instrumentation.

The laughter at the end of the album’s final track “Blowing My Mind” wraps up the debut album’s intentionally playful experimentation with the genre. Oceans of the Moon emphasizes a minimalistic approach to noise rock, where Six Finger Satellite meets La Machine, but without much lyrical gasping – just repetition.