For their third album London instrumental band Million Moons wanted to create music to evoke images of individual creatures in their natural habitats. Guitarist, pianist and composer Edward Thompson works in marine conservation, so the subject matter is close to his heart. I must admit a tear came to my eye when I read the story behind the album’s title You Be Good, I Love You. These were the poignant last words of Alex the Parrot, who was studied by scientists and learnt to communicate with his handlers. Thompson, joined by Solomon Radley, Freddie Locock-Harrison and Jay Miller hooked up once again with producer Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Slow Crush and Employed To Serve) for this immense sounding body of work.
Opener ‘Titan of the Deep’ sets the tone with layers of guitars like a tsunami in full flow. Laden with effects, I haven’t heard such a wonderful eruption of sound elsewhere. The emotions the track evokes are euphoric. Closing with a blizzard of chopping drums and heavy guitars, it’s a mighty fine opener to the album. Written after the passing of a beloved pet, ‘Last Days Together’ rolls with stately guitars and classical sounding piano. The intricate guitars showcase some excellent technical playing, and the dynamics move to noisier passages with consummate ease. The final moments are absolutely epic as melodies explode around you.
‘Black Sun Rising’ opens with a beautiful passage of clean guitar work and synths that hover in the ether. When the volume rises, those glorious guitars are like lava flowing on the ground, thick and fiery, engulfing everything in their path. The little splashes of snare drums and guitar notes in ‘Thundering Footsteps’ are like water droplets. There’s a delicate passage of math rock as the bass and drums get complex together. The music here is actually intensely heavy, we’re a growled vocal away from black metal at times, but those guitar melodies are just sublime and keep the atmospheric light. ‘Secret Histories’ switches between elegiac passages of clean guitars and seismic rushes of guitars that zoom into the skies with marvellous eruptions of metal and melody.
The moody ‘Memories of a Past Life’ brings in a hazy saxophone to the evocative opening passage of shimmering guitars. This track is the most post-rock of the collection creating a simmering tension before the skull cracking finale gets up and running. You just can’t help but marvel at how they managed to get the guitars to sound so HUGE! Bonus points for usage of the word echoes in ‘Echoes in the Abyss’. With some pompous synths permeating the mix, this track feels a little proggy as layers build and mesh together. When the piano enters the fray, the whole track becomes grandiose and heightens the emotions. Then the church organ brings this extraordinary piece to a stunning closure. Finally, ‘Floating for Eternity’ literally floats into your headspace with liquid guitars, piano sprinkles and a military drumbeat. The waves of distorted guitar drop bringing a deep sense of euphoria and bliss.
The guitar tones on this album are simply divine throughout, and the massive waves of shimmering distortion really pull on the emotions. All of the instrumentation is rich and played with incredible technical dexterity. This beautiful hymnal to the animal kingdom is one of the finest produced albums I think I have ever heard from the instrumental genre. Glorious.
