In her previous releases Elsewhere and We Used to Bloom, British-Jamaican artist Denai Moore incorporated R&B, folk and electronic influences, positioning her sound as having no boundaries. For her third album, her genre-blending tracks explore the paradoxical isolation that arises in an age when we are supposedly more connected than ever.
Moore’s hypnotically sinister beats take the listener on a surrealist journey into a fantasy world – pairing contemplations on security and selfhood with futuristic warped noises, she creates a nightmarish realm reflecting humanity’s darkness. Electronic sound underpins the album – Too Close is defined by its technically impressive basslines, while on Turn Off the Radio, Moore’s ethereal words overlap each other in a chorus of distorted vocals.
For Moore, escapism is what motivates this imagined reality: lyrically, she attempts to uproot herself from a system she refuses to align with. In To the Brink, Moore is dissatisfied with the inherently futile, unstable and violent nature of contemporary society, desperate to forge an alternative universe where she feels safe (“trying to find the space to finally break free / yet we can’t pull the plug / Still hanging on parts of us”). Sonically, there is an anxiety-inducing energy as her modular synths seem to take on a life of their own, teaming up with aggressive percussion and layered vocals to catapult us into Moore’s subconscious.
Modern Dread forces us to make our own introspective journey, heading towards the same conclusion: no one can really break free from the system, so we need to change it entirely.
