It’s a bit difficult to describe the music of Radar Men from the Moon (who are actually from the Netherlands). Is it psychedelia? Prog-rock? Synthwave? Shoegaze? All of that? None of it? I’m not sure. They were all playing synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines when I saw them at Levitation France a couple years ago, and Subversive I is heavy on electronica and synths, whereas other albums are more guitar-based. I do know, however, that everything I’ve heard from them is good.
Subversive I is the part of a triptych of albums released in consecutive years starting in 2015. Subversive I is only four instrumental tracks, but the shortest one is six-and-a-half minutes long.
That one is the first track, “Deconstruction,” which starts off with fuzzy synth bass and sharp drum beats before robot pulse guitars come in to get you moving. It’s an industrial dance track in many ways, again making RMFTM difficult to categorize.
“Habitual” takes on a darkwave tone with guitars that sound like they were recorded in a dark tomb and bass and synths that sounds like some…thing pounding and clawing it’s way out of that tomb.
“Neon” is the longest track on the album at eleven minutes and sixteen seconds. It starts quiet and brooding, like a slow, building rain hitting a tin roof. It turns into a theme for a cool futuristic mystery-thriller movie you think you’ve seen but never have.
The closer, “Hacienda,” is the most “in your face” song on the record with its buzz-saw guitars and “Peter Gunn”-like bass that gets under your skin.
Subversive I, like a lot of RMFTM’s work, is one of those albums that changes the feel of the room when you play it. It’s one of those albums that makes people ask, “What is this?” Sometimes they ask it out of intrigue, other times out of confusion, and other times out of apprehension. If that doesn’t make you want to hear it, I don’t know what will.
Keep your mind open.
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