Artist: Moleskin
Label: Evergreen Records
Release: 2010
Duration: 41:39
Rating: 0.5/5
Moleskin are French alt rockers from Paris. If you translated the band name from English into Slovenian, you’d be talking about mole skin. Anyway, the cover of “Voluntary Inventory” actually shows an imprint of leather. Maybe they’ve recently started making upholstery for sofa sets out of actual mole skin. Surely the latest fashion fad out of France.
If we step back from these flashes of association, Moleskin’s music is an attempt at merging the minimalism that Queens Of The Sotne Age brought to stoner rock with punk rock tricks. The 11 tracks are as alike as one egg is to another. Not in the riffs, not in the vocal approach do they stray from one another. Everything is chopped off at a single frequency.
On top of that, the vocals are high. Wailing and unbelievably annoying. When he launches into howling in the highest registers, it feels like someone is drilling through your brain with the kind of machine they use to break up reinforced concrete slabs. These Frenchmen are truly masters at creating unlistenability!
Semitone riff rhetoric without any proper sinew, grit or potency, a grating vocal that’s indistinct in the verses, a one-dimensional, sterile rhythmic skeleton. You really have to wonder whether musicians in France are even mature enough to tackle stoner rock. And punk, which is an even worse slap in the face when it comes to the level of creativity.
So don’t fall for this holey product, which hasn’t got a shred of dynamics or life, and therefore none of the “balls” to convince you these guys are playing “hard,” the way stoner demands. Stick to the Scandinavians, the North Americans and the Brits.
Lineup
Julien Babin – vocals, guitar
David Vincent – guitar
Loic Monpontet – bass guitar
Thibaut Paschet – drums
Production
Moleskin
Tracklist
01. Back To Ashes
02. Unclear
03. Out Of The Blue
04. 3 Words
05. My Resurrection
06. A Sight For Sore Eyes
07. You Can’t Tell Anyone
08. Just A Few Seconds
09. Battered Nation
10. V.A.I.N. N.O.V.E.L.
11. Evergreen
