It’s always good to hear new bands coming forward, especially in this current era of no live gigs, and as such I was glad to have Polymoon and their debut album ‘Caterpillars of Creation’ sent my way to review, and again, it is a credit to modern communication that this collection of Finnish wearers of flares are able to have their music appear in my Scottish home at the click of a button. Yes, technology and the internet has the downside of normalising piracy and engendering a feeling of free entitlement, but it also means that music can be spread faster than the old pace of swapped tapes at music fairs. Rant over, and onto the music.

It’s fair to say that the influences on Polymoon’s music are every bit as retro as the flowered shirts the band sport in their promo shots, and album opener ‘Silver Mountain’ initially leaps back to the Syd Barrett days of The Pink Floyd, loose ethereal vocals being lost amongst the swirling musical vista, interspersed with heavier guitar attacks, creating a sonic ebb and flow like a rising tide angrily lashing against a shore before gently settling into quiescence. ‘Lazaward’ continues to journey into timeless psychedelic prog, a track that meanders across a near nine minute journey through inner space before fading into ‘Malamalama’ (try pronouncing that successfully after a few scrumpies or whatever is your favourite relaxant), a song redolent of the sort of gentle trippy space rock riffs that Captain Brock and his band of merry men would deliver to the accompaniment of a hypnotic light show.

Things get altogether heavier with ‘Helicaling’, the opening beats of bass and drums starting with a sprint to match strident guitars and keyboards, the angrily delivered vocals crying between the instruments bringing, at least to my mind, hints of the ire of Joy Division, Polymoon adding an element of Indie angst to their retro sound. ‘Neitherworld’ slows the pace with its mellow opening, elements of the gentle side of Gabriel era Genesis being built upon, layer after layer being added, synths taking the lead in creating what becomes a wall of sound midway through the track that is so at odds with the almost pastoral opening, the band’s Prog with a capital “P” credentials shining through at the end of the track with a near two minutes of effects that could easily have accompanied the discovery of the obelisk in Kubrick’s ‘2001.’ The whole is rounded out by the tongue twisting ‘Metempsychosis’, delivering a work every bit as baffling and complicated as the philosophy of the song’s title.

That Polymoon are willing in this day and age of throwaway sound-bite sized musical tastes to create an album where each track requires, indeed, demands concentration to fully appreciate is something to be admired. Likewise, is their willingness to immerse themselves in an Acid/Prog category, it hardly being one liable to draw the megabucks and millions of streams of the commercial genres heard playing out of the tinny phone speakers of the youth of today. As a first release, ‘Caterpillars of Creation’ points in the direction of the future potential of the band, and once live music starts again, I’d hope to catch them on stage to see if they could create the same experience away from the studio.

(8/10 Spenny)

https://www.facebook.com/polymooooon

https://polymoon.bandcamp.com/album/caterpillars-of-creation