On the surface, Melbourne's Howl At The Moon come across as a straight-up, dark-edged indie rock band. On preliminary listens, it's obvious they have some genuine attitude and swagger; Katie Scott's voice is instantly captivating and the production is strong enough to represent some of the more delicate edges of the band.
If you scratch away those top layers, and give the record an opportunity to deliver some of what lies beneath, then the whole thing becomes a lot more interesting. Squalls is not merely a snapshot of a band jamming away and finishing off some song ideas – there's a whole lot more going on here.
First track Caught By The Sun (a song about a volcano) starts unassumingly enough. It doesn't try and wow you with obvious hooks or any other deliberate gestures for your attention. It plays itself out slowly and without fanfare, almost pretending that it isn't even trying, to the point you barely notice the many sections, complex changes and intelligent arrangements. It requires much more than a casual glance to get there. Sword-Fighting, amongst many other moments, proves this is no coincidence – actually singling out tracks to mention their merits becomes difficult when the gravity of the whole album becomes apparent. It's not surprising that primary songwriters Mark Renall and Katie Scott have had some of the songs on this album written for many years, but the real challenge is trying to work out which ones, such is the high level of everything on this debut.
There's no shortage of bands making dark indie at the moment, but few lately have owned the idea so masterfully and with their individuality so apparent as Howl At The Moon.
