Moin (Literally) Chops It Up

a.k.a. An interview with the UK outfit (who previously spent years playing as Raime) about their unique working process and turn towards guitars.

Tom Halstead and Joe Andrews didn’t grow up on punk rock and angsty guitar music. The UK artists spent their formative years gorging on electronic music, and later funneled that experience into their music as Raime, a genre-blurring, emotionally intense outfit with a serious cinematic streak. Active throughout the 2010s, their releases—which eventually began to feature the drumming of Valentina Magaletti—piled up accolades, often presenting sounds that were clearly inspired by the dancefloor, but not exactly designed for it.

By the time 2021 rolled around, most Raime fans were likely expecting a new full-length, and while they did get it, the album took things in a fairly drastic new direction. Entitled Moot!, the record was not only rooted in a brash, guitar-heavy sound that was closer to post-hardcore than post-dubstep, it wasn’t credited to Raime at all. The group—which was now officially a trio—had instead reverted to Moin, an alias that Halstead and Andrews hadn’t used since 2013.

Amongst those who heard it, Moot! was greeted enthusiastically, frequently drawing comparisons to bands like Fugazi and Slint. (For those unfamiliar with the LP, my own gushing review for Pitchfork dives deeper into the album.) That said, the record was also a surprise—one that the group didn’t rush to explain. Offering little in the way of context and clarifying information, they simply dropped the music, and later this week, they’ll be releasing another Moin LP, Paste, once again for the AD 93 label.

That in and of itself great news. The new album is excellent, but as I listened to its muscular rhythms and array of (at times aggressive) vocal samples, I once again found myself with a list of unanswered questions. What prompted such a clear change in direction? Was it rooted in some kind of dissatisfaction with electronic music? Is this band on some sort of ’90s rock nostalgia trip? Why return to a little-used moniker after nearly a decade? Is Raime finished?

Hoping to find out, I reached out to the group and asked if they’d be up for an interview, and they agreed. Over the course of a lengthy call late last week, they addressed not only the questions listed above, but also explained how the sound of Moin comes together, in both the studio and live settings. As it turns out, their process is quite different from that of the average guitar band, which perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, Raime never fit neatly into any particular corner of electronic music, and Moin, despite its somewhat more familiar sound, seems similarly determined to defy traditional boundaries.