Stream: Moon Honey, ‘Betta Fish’

Kevin Bronson on November 28th, 2017

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The sonic and visual spectacle that is Moon Honey arrived in L.A. in the fall of 2014 from Louisiana, bringing with them no small amount of Bayou voodoo and a musical style that set them apart: progressive rock, bordering on psychotropic. Lewis Carroll might have imagined something like the duo of Jess Joy (fka Jessica Ramsey) and Andrew Martin, but the L.A. scene didn’t. From Martin’s shape-shifting guitar, to Joy’s vocal trills and thrills, to a flamboyant stage presentation replete with handmade costumes and headdresses, Moon Honey’s imagination transcends just “making music.”

Which brings us to that. In their three years here, Moon Honey — whose official catalog included nothing except the 2013 album “Hand-Painted Dream Photographs” — had released zero new music until today. The new song and live favorite “Betta Fish” is the first to emerge from the band’s sessions with producer John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead, Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie), and it’s a 5-minute suite emblematic of the duo’s virtuosity. Joy’s abstract vocals cascade over Martin’s riffs and shifts in tempo — beautiful yet aggressive, like the titular aquatic creatures. Swim with it, move to it. There’s more on the way in 2018, Moon Honey says.

||| Stream: “Betta Fish”