MoonSpeak:

Manifestation

Two years ago, when I first started writing these reviews, NaGUST (who then identified herself as MoonSpeak) put out her debut LP, Manifestation—and I am definitely not proud of that review (indeed, this revisiting has been a long time coming). Back then, I wasn’t at all familiar with the “process” of reviewing music—and I’m still not, really. All I really do is express my opinion here, and I don’t really aim to do much else beyond that. However, that Manifestation review was not only unfair, but kind of rude, too. I gave it a 3/5, which isn’t bad, but if you read the review itself, you’ll find some embarrassingly stupid criticisms and some very poor writing.

I don’t know if it’s because I was just trying too hard to be the cynical, can’t-be-pleased, uber-harsh critic, or if I was just really upset with her at the time, but I think it’s mostly because I wrote the review as I was listening to it for the first time. Which, yeah, is incredibly disrespectful, and I’m kind of ashamed of myself for that, and since then, I’ve made sure to listen to each record thoroughly before I even think to write the review of it.

I mean, it’s all water under the bridge, of course. So why am I revisiting it? Well, for one, because I just like closure. Though I make it sound like that review’s unfairness was a sudden revelation that I had recently, I’ve always wanted to give that LP a fair shake. But it’s mostly because NaGUST has obviously made a progression since then, and it would be interesting, I think, to sort of look back and see how far she’s come. And on top of that, the album’s second anniversary is in a week, so, what better time to revisit the album than now?

The album is clearly defined by two distinct parts—night and day. “Lunar Journey”, the track that kicks the album off, is a very soothing intro—probably goes on for a little bit too long—but introduces us to the longer first half of the record, representing the night. The “night” tracks are all darker, moodier, and generally a lot more hectic than the “day” tracks, beginning with “Solar Journey”. This is something that I missed in my last review (not that I want to dwell too much on it), because, I don’t know, I was too distracted by my own “unshakeable critic” façade? But it’s definitely there, and it actually adds a nice layer of depth to the record, even if it’s a little clichéd.

Before, I shat on the idea of having two versions of the same song on the record—the two “Journey” tracks. In reality, there’s nothing wrong with that, especially considering that the song itself isn’t bad (it actually contains one of the better melodies she’s ever produced). If I were to expand on that previous opinion, however, I probably would have liked to see some elements within the two versions that would differentiate them further, like adding some darker, nocturnal soundscapes to “Lunar Journey”, and make “Solar Journey” sound a little bit like waking up in the morning, or something along those lines. But yeah, definitely not bad idea to have these two tracks on the record, dividing it into its two sections.

The “night” portion of the album is much longer (which makes sense—sometimes it feels like the night lasts much longer than the day), so there’s a lot more to digest here. Some highlights include “Moon est Boom,” a very noisy, gritty, almost industrial track that just feels really layered and busy—it’s probably my favorite track on the record overall. Even the track that precedes it, “Rauðr þoka nótt” again takes some more industrial influence, which I love. It’s just such a driving, blood-pumping sound that’s very difficult to describe.

Some pitfalls here include “Baking Under the Midnight Sun,” which, while it’s not a terrible track in and of itself, tends to overstay its welcome, with its very driving yet repetitive beat that loses me within two minutes. This was a recurring issue I had with many of MoonSpeak’s albums, as they always seemed to contain a bunch of tracks that were over-inflated with length, but had little substance or variation within. But it’s still better than “Crushed in Orbit”.

Oh, dear, this track. I don’t wanna dwell too much on it—because I already tore it apart in my last review—but let’s just say… it didn’t get any better this time. We have this incredibly obnoxious stock vocalist who comes out of nowhere—His delivery is absolutely excruciating. The beat flows together with his voice like sewage. It matches so poorly with his voice, that every time this song comes on, I give it a skip. I just have to skip it, because it’s just that—All right, all right, I said I wasn’t gonna dwell on it… But, if there’s one takeaway from this track at all, though, it’s that she hasn’t really ever produced anything remotely like this ever since, so that’s good.

This side of the record also contains some of MoonSpeak’s more complex ventures, like “Meteora Phantasm,” “Kinder der Nacht,” and (discussed earlier) “Moon est Boom.” These are probably the best tracks on the record—not just for being complex, of course. Sometimes, complexity can lead to a considerably jumbled and awful sound. But something I never really gave her any credit for in my last review was just how well-put-together these three tracks are. I like to think I might have thought so at the time, but I was just too proud to admit it (or something), but yeah, they’re pretty well-crafted.

The reason tracks like “Meteora Phantasm” aren’t my favorite, however, is because there’s just nothing about them that’s memorable. I think I went into that before, too, and that’s a criticism I actually stand by. On this record, MoonSpeak seemed to try her hardest at making these songs infectious, but to be honest, the biggest flaw with really all of these songs is that none of them are memorable. They don’t stick in my head, or make me feel anything. They’re just kinda… eh.

From this, however, lies one of her strengths—even though she’s never quite made an insanely catchy song before (to me, anyway), she has found a niche in the atmospheric/ambient department. There’s a lot of excellent groundwork on Manifestation that could really serve to either be reworked or repurposed in some fashion (she has in the past discussed the possibility of remastering her best works and putting them in a compilation album), I bet they could really sound great.

But, of course, I can’t forget the “day” tracks. “Adversa de Luna Atrita” is actually the first song I’ve heard from her, and it’s basically what inspired me to do this—because it’s still one of her best tracks, and the closest she’s ever come to creating an infectious beat. I love how the urgency of this song just builds and builds all throughout until the end—it serves a great example of a track that is perfectly justified in its four minute length. Unfortunately, the other two tracks on the record are only so-so, in my opinion. “Ptolmey’s Traveller” (she misspelled traveler, there—surprised I didn’t mention that in my first review!) is the better of the two, but in general, I’m just not a fan of the beat. It feels kinda dull and uninspired to me, and “Mayor of the Moon”, in my opinion, wasn’t exactly the best possible ending she could have gone with.

Overall, while I don’t necessarily believe my rating was unjustified, what was greatly unjustified was my dismissive attitude towards the LP in my initial review. I was just kinda being a jerk with that one. Now, having reconciled with it, I concede that it’s a lot better than I initially gave it credit for. There are tracks that, despite not being very memorable, I still consider a joy to listen to. One of the most hurtful comments I made in my last review was towards the very end, where I insinuated that no effort went into this LP:

“I'm mostly disappointed, but again, I'll give it another listen later and give a more professional review then. But right now, I'm kinda bitter after listening to that, and I don't even feel like dignifying this review with a proofreading session. I'll slap it on the site, just as half the songs were on this record.”

I don’t know what was up my ass when I wrote that, but rest assured—now that I’ve given the record a fair shake, and a good amount of listens, a good amount of consideration, I fully rescind that comment. It’s clear to me now that a great deal of effort went into most of these tracks, and they certainly weren’t “slapped on”. I like how I tried to pull my punch a little bit, using the word “half”, almost like I was trying to lessen the blow a little bit. I wouldn’t have written anything like this today.

But that’s been my favorite part of this whole process so far. Not only do I get to witness my friend grow as an artist—I get to watch myself grow as a writer as well. Hopefully, one day, I’ll get to file some of these reviews in a portfolio of some sort, and NaGUST, of course, has a vast repertoire of music already, owing to her very prolific pace. I’m not one for optimistic bullshit, but truthfully, it’s only when we look at the past, I’ve found, that we can develop an idea of where we’ll be an in the future. It’s looking all right for me, and I think it’s looking good for NaGUST, too. And of course, I’ll be looking forward to whatever she has in store next.

FAVORITE SONGS:
Lunar Journey, Moon est Boom, Kinder der Nacht, Adversa de Luna Atrita

LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
Crushed in Orbit, Mayor of the Moon

7/10