Moomin - Yesterday's Tomorrow

Moomin
Yesterday's Tomorrow
2018
Spotify

There are few genres of music that split the hairs of genre quite as intensely as electronic. House music is usually the base and then it spirals into a thousand different sub-genre's and cultures. It becomes overwhelming at times not to mention frustrating when you say you heard a great new "techno" track and someone says it was actually "dub techno low fi". Moomin has almost exclusively played in the House realm of of things. His productions are simple, kick drum, keyboard distant jazz sample in the background, rinse and repeat. It's a formula that works just as well today as it may have when the genre was first emerging onto the scene. On this album however Moomin takes a lean towards the nostalgic bringing hip hop beats and classic sounds from the early days of House music to give it this all over warm feeling. It sounds like vinyl, spinning on decks, in your ears and this is the kind of music for adults looking to vibe. Moomin clearly had a very specific time in his mind when producing this album, early 90s electronic. While his tunes would typically play in the House realm from that era on Yesterday's Tomorrow He brings in a more boom-bap sound while even throwing in a little drum n bass for good measure. Now don't let that scare you this is by no means a new Goldie album, but the change up gives the record some punctuation where otherwise it might be to casual of a listen.

 While Moomin definitely has a time frame in mind He also has a really strong sense of putting you in a place. At the end of "Shibuya Feelings" the sound almost completely drops out and you just hear the thumping bass from somewhere far in the interior of the club. It transports you to walking those dark hallways hearing music coming from somewhere but not quite sure just where yet. These are all places we've been before and really sounds we've heard there. It is really nice to sort of slide into this record and allow it to unfold, but it isn't breaking any new territory. "Move On" the first track to employ the drum n bass still manages to slide it into Moomin's style, just sort of unfolding in front of you rather than hitting you over the head with music. Even hip hop slides through on tracks like "949494" but still it's all classic stuff that just hangs around a bit to long to feel exciting. Yesterday's Tomorrow is a comfortable album, but that really is about it, you are totally missing any edges or grit. Yet it's still nice to sit back and allow an album like this to wash over you, even though it might not be blowing your mind.

6.0 out of 10