Moire
No Future
Release Date: Feb 17, 2017
Genre(s): Electronic, Techno, Club/Dance, Experimental Techno
Record label: Ghostly International
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Album Review: No Future by Moire
Very Good, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Making his debut on Ghostly International following releases on Werkdiscs, R&S, and Ghostly's sister label Spectral Sound, No Future is the second full-length from London-based producer Moiré. The album is on par with the artist's exceptional brand of scuffed-up house that initially attracted the attention of Werkdiscs boss Actress, but on this release, there's more of a socially conscious bent to his work. Without making any specific political statements, the album's title is meant as a simple, dead-serious warning as to what will happen if the world continues in the direction that it's going.
Based on rating 8/10
No Future isn’t meant as a political statement. For electronic artist Moiré, the title is an obvious summation of where we, as a society, find ourselves. The world as we know it is slipping away as right-wing politicians chip at our civil liberties and win victories over the dispossessed and disenfranchised simply by shouting the loudest. Society finds itself stuck in a regressive swan dive in which we rush to hit the reset button to take us back to the "good ole days".
Based on rating 3.5/5
The phrase "no future" has a long history in contemporary music, particularly in London. You can trace it all the way from the Sex Pistols in the '70s through to Instra:mental around the turn of the decade. In a climate of neoliberalism and right-wing politics, the phrase channels feelings of frustration and nihilism in young people. "'No Future' as an old punk slogan feels more relevant to me than ever before," London producer Moiré told us while announcing his second album.
Based on rating 7/10
No Future, the sophomore LP from up-and-coming producer Moiré, firmly places him within the second wave of techno-revivalists. Taking cues from artists like Actress, Simian Mobile Disco and Theo Parrish, the Londoner has seemingly filtered Detroit's skeletal but groovy instrumental electronic beats through the soulful and grimy feel of his hometown peers. Although he's released a number of 12-inch recordings over the past four years, Moiré comes off stronger and more confident as an album-based artist here, as his brand of ebb-and-flow melodies and echoing beats tend to develop and mutate.
Based on rating 6/10
Moiré certainly has a distinctive sound: bumping house basslines, classic techno synths and lo-fi sounds contrasted with an overall hi-def sheen, all given a dark, gloomy mood and frequently slowed down to a crawl. Here, he's brought more voices into the mix in the form of looped-up verses/phrases from leftfield d'n'b stalwart MC DRS and spoken word star James Massiah, but these feel like an extension of the introspective grooves more than a departure. A track at a time, it's great, but the absolute consistency gets wearing over the course of a whole album.
Opinion: Excellent
While most press releases that come with album promos are either perfunctory or overblown with flowery hyperbole, sometimes you come across a statement that makes you sit up and go "yeah… I get that". And, alongside the declarations of sci-fi aesthetics and the ideas that techno is still a feasible force for the new and unknown, one of those statement comes from dance music producer Moiré attached to his second album No Future: "It's weird," says Moiré. "It feels like everything is disappearing in front of us, almost like someone is pulling the carpet from beneath our feet, and we can't do anything about it.
Opinion: Excellent
Aside from giving your album the über-negative title 'No Future', how exactly do you turn your techno-leaning, mostly instrumental music into a critique of modern society? A society which architect and electronic music producer Moiré describes as feeling 'like everything is disappearing in front of us'. This album represents Moiré's astute dissertation on an era that is supposed to be filled with innovation and possibility, but which instead wants to turn everything into a homogenous cookie-cutter image image of itself. As an architect, where the demands of maximising rent-per-square-foot leads to identikit glass boxes devoid of flair and courage, Moiré likely feels this most acutely; whereas, as a musician, he can at least present something more powerfully original and unconstrained.
'No Future'
is available now