RST s/t 2xLP

RST s/t 2xLP

New Zealand based sound artist RST (Andrew Moon) has been chasing the horizon for twenty-five years, single-mindedly pursuing something simple, essential, and finely honed: the possibilities afforded when you step outside of the grid of the song, and let the electric guitar find its own harmony.

RST’s music is singular for its ability to tease untold riches from a limited set of parameters. On his new album – appropriating the essential primal rock and roll elements of beaten guitars, cheap effects and loud amps – Moon lets the room sing, creating an album of reflective darkness, of quiet moments that unfold with slowly-encroaching unease. There are moments of great beauty, too: the vibrating halation of “Wave Motion” is numinous, intoxicating; the subsequent “Pure Spectrum”, conversely, is isolated and cold.

With song titles inspired by Sun Ra and Charles Gayle among others, and signature space blues vibes cranked, the whole thing plays out like classic RST: a blasted soundscape, cratered and marked with debris, a fug of hazy cloudforms and driftworks.