‘Skin/Skein’ is one of the greatest projects from the band Moon Orchids. With just four tracks, this EP is jam-packed with emotions, excellently detailing the highs and lows of love. It gently draws you in and leaves you coming out as a changed person by the end.
The EP beautifully unfolds with ‘Lovers’. A wistful and melancholic song following the journey of an ill-fated couple, too desperate and young to truly grapple with the concept of love.
The extended intro of guitars piques your interest before Jacob Simons’ vocals provide the song with a warmth, adding a Johnny Cash vibe to the EP, and perfectly strengthening the EP’s themes.
The intriguing use of the trumpets and clarinets paired alongside the special feature by Kim Douglass provides ‘Lovers’ with a certain poignancy, delightfully dipping listeners’ toes into what the EP entails.
Like the sun peeking its way through the clouds, ‘Into The Violet’ and ‘No Surrender’ are
next on the tracklist. More hopeful than ‘Lovers’, they’re songs immediately touch your soul and leave you wishing that this four-track stunner was slightly longer.
The lyric “I’ll find my way back home to you” from ‘Into the Violet’ is a lyric which especially stands out to me and, what I feel, is a defining lyric of the song and the EP as a whole. In spite of all the flaws and imperfections, love still conquers.
The instruments on both tracks really shine through with Morgan Keltie’s trumpeting skills on ‘Lovers’ and Brendon Infante’s drums, and the jaunty, wobbly guitars in ‘No Surrender’ are some of the key highlights of their respective tracks, helping to break through the shrouding fog that ‘Lovers’ left behind.
Being the longest track on the whole EP, ‘Chasm’ is a flawless finisher. Heavier than all the previous tracks, it helps to breathe a new lease of life into ‘Skin/Skein’ and ensures that you’ll always have something new to appreciate with this fantastic release. The explosion of the instruments, which calms down at some points, brings this song, and subsequently the whole EP, to exciting heights and proves that Moon Orchids should be a band that you keep a very close eye on.
Moon Orchids’ stunning EP ‘Skin/Skein’ is an excellent listen, which perfectly encapsulates the highs and lows that love brings. Fused with tinges of folk, rock and indie, it perfectly defines why the band are so revered and leaves you curious about what’s on the cards for the band.
Written by Madi Briggs
