Moon King have shared a second preview from their forthcoming debut album Secret Life, which will be released on Last Gang Records worldwide on April 14. The track comes on the heels of warmly received run of UK dates for the Toronto duo, which saw them play to a packed out Scala and other venues as the main support to Alvvays.
Listen to “Apocalypse”
A regular live opener, “Apocalypse” embodies the brittle emotional landscape and fraught, combustible energy which threads through the album. Beginning with the confession “somehow I feel no release when I’m alone with anyone else / somehow I fall to pieces when I wake up to nothing where you should be”, the song builds in intensity and speed until overflowing in a rush of cathartic noise.
Stereogum previously premiered single “Roswell,” noting the track is “a sprawling, soaring six-minute epic that follows a propulsive motorik groove straight into the sky and sounds absolutely immense while doing it.”
Listen to “Roswell via Stereogum
In 2013, Moon King, made up of songwriter Daniel Benjamin and singer/guitarist Maddy Wilde, played over 100 shows to support a pair of EPs, Obsession I and II, which were released on Fucked Up’s One Big Silence label in North America and Tough Love in UK/Europe. After a year spent on the road, it became evident they should capture the energy of their live show while it was fresh. Daniel & Maddy relocated to a cottage in northern Ontario to record the album with a group of Toronto music scene luminaries, all of whom had played in various incarnations of the live band.
Most of the tracks on the album were recorded live off the floor, with little except the vocals added, put to tape by live sound engineer Noah Giffin (Owen Pallett, Austra, DIANA). The record was then mixed in New York with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra/Blouse.
The album’s production introduces further nuance to the wall-of-sound approach of the EPs, stripping back dense layers to unearth spellbinding vocals and melodies. Daniel’s lyrics focus on catharsis and the weight of emotional trauma, as well as dealing with the self-doubt that stands in the way of recovery.
A sense of loss and longing permeates the album throughout, each song carrying with it both a weight and a sense of urgency.