Newmoon presents debut album "space"

Call it shoegaze, call it dream pop, call it glacial, heartbreaking alt-rock; call it what you want. On their debut album Space, new Belgian band Newmoon create a kaleidoscopic swirl of sound, an abstract world of textures, post-punk mood shifts and aural tsunamis crashing on the distant silver shores of the imagination.

Taking their name from an Elliot Smith album and based in Antwerp and Ghent, Newmoon formed in late 2013. Band members previously played in the much-loved hardcore punk band Midnight Souls, now widely recognised as one of the country’s finest. And though the two projects may superficially appear polar opposites, hardcore is nothing if not a genre built purely on dynamics, something this quintet have a masterful grasp of.

Newmoon explore different textures however. Ocean-wide and mountain high, Space is nothing less than gargantuan. Intimate one moment, expansive the next. This is the sound of young men growing up, expanding their worldview and realising the true potential of guitars. If hardcore is about black and white and zero compromise then Newmoon are painting from an entirely new palette. Here the tones of Slowdive, Seefeel, Pale Saints and My Bloody Valentine can be detected, yet Newmoon are not mired in the past.