MOE Oslo Janus (IV)

Like a lot of artists currently working in Norway (such as Fe-Mail, Lasse Marhaug, Paal Nilssen-

Love, etc), Moe makes music that aggressively combines several idioms at once: electronic noise,

free jazz/improv, rock/metal, and modern composition. All three members of Moe have careers that

blend diverse styles… why not play everything at once? Bassist/band-leader Guro Skumsnes Moe

(yep, the band’s name is her own surname, following the example led by Winger and Van Halen

before her) is a pigeonhole-averse polymath performer/composer whose work is all over the sonic

map but recognizably her own. Drummer Joakim Heibo plays both free jazz and hardcore. Guitarist

Havard Skaset is active in free improvisation, and also chamber-music-adjacent group Sult. As

Moe, this trio plays what could (in an overly-general way) by called heavy rock, though the

members’ extra-curricular interests are audibly present throughout. On their latest album, they

immediately sound like a more equitable Fushitsusha, if that band wasn’t so focused on providing

a backdrop for the guitarist. Drums propel each song with an ever-present jazz swing while guitar

rains a solo squall and the bass runs up and down as the lead voice. By the second song, they

splinter into angular jabs and intense repetition like some lost 90’s Touch & Go band… think Don

Caballero meets Zeni Geva meets Storm & Stress. It’s to the band’s credit that I can’t tell whether

this music is composed or improvised. I suppose I could look it up, but I don’t really care because

these are just good tunes so it doesn’t matter how they were made. All three rock-familiar

instruments are cleanly and legibly recorded, which makes their fiery jazz-adjacent explosion

more appreciably listenable than it might have been had the producer pushed them into the red.

One can probably attribute the uncluttered recording quality to engineer Alex Bennett at Sound

Recordings, where Moe laid down all ten of these tracks in a single day (!) before the last date of

their 2018 Australian tour. The typically loud and aggressive band had to adjust to their recording

situation to the new studio, resulting in a rather clean and balanced sound. (HS)