Formed in 2001 by Chris Hathwell, Blake Miller, and Johan Boegli, the band had already opened for the likes of Blur, Hot Hot Heat and the Pixies by the time debut album, Dangerous Dreams finally arrived on the shelves in 2004. Since then this industrious little LA three-piece have offered the same kind of support to Bloc Party, Interpol and Nine Inch Nails.
See a theme developing? Something a little bit indie? A little bit electro? A little bit me? A little bit you?
Well so you should, as the eleven or so tracks that make up Moving Unit’s new album, ‘Hexes For Exes’ manage to meld two or three decades of distinctly Anglican, post-punk new and even newer wave. The strutting, buzz-saw distortion and reckless euphoria of ‘Paper Hearts’ is the same kind of adrenalin driven stomp that characterized Black’s ‘Debaser’ – a giddy, sprightly meteor shower of morphing riffs, sun-bursting synthesizers and a half-dozen or so missed opportunities and regrets. It’s a bit like jumping in the car, slipping into 5th and tearing around the early eighties and 90s with a lively ensemble cast that includes Depeche Mode, Joy Division, The Cult, Duran Duran, Ultravox and Bob Mould with Brian Eno at the wheel and Brandon Flowers tossing out hooks from the passenger window. Whilst the squelchy, robotic thrust of tracks like, ‘The Kids From Orange County’ and ‘Crash ‘n’ Burn Victims’ supply no shortage of electric shocks, and fizzy, surburban retro, it’s tracks like ‘Dark Walls’ and ‘Wrong Again’ that pick up directly where Curtis, Hooky and the gang left off. It’s the same dancing bass pattern and the whispering ecstasy that drove ‘Paper Hearts’ but with more lifts, more helium, more synths and an even more generous shot of adrenalin; a space-age romance set against a fairly-tale backdrop where dragons vanish and kingdoms crumble and lovers get very, very emotional indeed. Remember The Stills? Well it’s a bit like that, but with more stamina and more bleeding hearts.
Both Brideshead and the 80s have seldom been revisited as handsomely (or as tunefully) as this.