As a Freq family favourite in all of her guises – leading Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave as well as sole trading – a new Kristin Hersh-led release would be likely to catch our ears even if it consisted of ten faithful takes on John Cage’s “4’ 33””. However, the fact that Hersh’s recent recordings have confirmed a renewed creativity means fresh rewards for those of us who have kept the faith over the years.
Whereas the band’s last long-player — 2020’s psychedelically-scorched Sun Racket – was a somewhat deliberate diversion and reversion back into the dissonant electrically-charged modes of 2003’s eponymous full-length, after the double-length sprawl of 2013’s preceding Purgatory / Paradise, the newly-moulded Moonlight Concessions is markedly the most musically interesting affair from Throwing Muses in some time. Whilst the core lyrical material remains quintessentially Hersh — through its converging streams of sub-consciousness and snatched conversational fragments — the production, arrangements and instrumental layers offer more eclectic and labyrinthine routes to explore.
For the most part then, this entails finding Hersh — with help from dextrous drummer Dave Narcizo, flexible bassist Bernard Georges, guest cellist Pete Harvey and co-producer Steve Rizzo – imaginatively pushing her vocals and electro-acoustic guitar parts into liminal spaces that the group have only fleetingly visited before or have formed the framings within more intricate past self-billed wares. Consequently, those who loved the underrated and overlooked Limbo-era of Throwing Muses will be in for a particular treat here, with the woody acid-folk weaving of “Summer Of Love”, “Libretto” and “Drugstore Drastic” blending together the strings-bolstered manoeuvrings of that 1996 collection and choice contemporaneous rougher-edged B-sides.Elsewhere, the sublime “South Coast” refracts warm memories of “Backroad” from 1992’s Red Heaven through the auditory prisms of the aforementioned Clear Pond Road; the atmospheric “Theremini” and “Sally’s Beauty” both burrow into the murkiness hidden between the brighter passages of 1995’s University; the evocative acoustics of “Albatross” dig a tunnel between The Fat Skier and Hips And Makers; the loose thrumming “You’re Clouds” distends the most wiry wings of 1988’s Horse Tornado; and the title track finale imagines a dreamy outtake from 1991’s The Real Ramona stripped of any period studio sheen.
Deeply satisfying in the transportation of its absorbing songs through internally broad and dense aural avenues, Moonlight Concessions is one of the strongest and most intriguing Throwing Muses records to date, that perhaps not even the most devoted of followers expected to appear at this point in the ensemble’s extended lifespan. Also taking into account ongoing current endeavours from the likes of Kim Deal, Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, the artistic rejuvenation of certain vintage characters within the extended 4AD family tree never sounded so good.-Adrian-
