Bands from regional areas have always resonated that little bit extra. Maybe it’s because I grew up in these parts myself and know how those involved in any artistic endeavour must work harder than most, pushing against a lot of elements that oppose the very idea of creativity.
In the case of Moscow Puzzles, the Iowa City band consisting of guitarist Tobin Hoover and drummer Tony Andrys, there is no better example. A two-piece not by design, they just couldn’t find any other likeminded people to join their band.
On their third release, Vast Space of the Interior, it’s Moscow Puzzles’ skeletal presentation that is their greatest strength. Not hemmed in by the stock standard four-piece tropes that have blighted post-rock for years, Hoover and Andrys go to greater lengths and depths, doing more with less, and the sheer grit and hard work shines through on these recordings.
Their locale plays a big part of the story on Vast Space of the Interior. A landscape where independent music can thrive, and as the exponential rise in living costs throughout metropolitan areas all across the world reaches unsustainable levels, who knows? Maybe these places will be the catalyst for artists to truly harness and dedicate the appropriate time their craft demands. American Motors showcased that last year with their excellent debut, Content, and now Moscow Puzzles follow suite in their own way.
Vast Space of the Interior starts with Highway Apathy – forward-thinking post-rock as thrumming undercurrents mess with the internal organs without you even knowing it. Meanwhile, Unknown Fixed Object feels directly inspired by Moscow Puzzles’ surroundings. Searching, instrumental, blues-inflected post-hardcore, and while they take very different paths to get there, the duo conjure similar hypnotic effects that Water Damage have delivered over the last three years.
Moscow Puzzles - Vast Space of the InteriorFollowing is Monumentation –a suite of three tracks that all have different outcomes. Parts I and III, lurching like a melodic voyage straddling the orbits. Again, a hypnotic resonance plays its part, and in between the lines, Hoover and Andrys dispense the kind of rustbelt echoes inspired by their immediate surroundings.
Parts I and II are split down the middle by part II. Post-rock with unadulterated swagger, here Moscow Puzzles take the early ideas of Pelican and June of 44 to the same corners Sumac have inhabited over the past decade. How a two-piece is responsible for such an unruly uproar is anyone’s guess, but together Hoover and Andrys transcend the notion of what most post-rock acts have manufactured over the years.
And on that note, by sweeping up the vestiges of just about every seminal instrumental act over the past 40 years, Every Tongue Will Confess is homage with added embellishments. Heady riffs against heavy percussion, creating a push-and-pull friction that sends everything into a tailspin.
Every listen to Vast Space of the Interior results in slightly different responses. The deeper one delves, the more Moscow Puzzles’ wide array of influences are exposed. The meandering facets Unwound to the unmoored nature of Don Caballero’s earliest recordings, Hoover and Andrys have spent years boiling down their core ideas. It’s for close listening, and when explored at this depth, the best results are found. It’s the time and space of their native Iowa City that has afforded such moments, and Vast Space of the Interior has plenty of them.
Vast Space of the Interior is out now via Placeholder Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.
