Moderat – More D4TA review

If you’re going to go on an open ended hiatus, choose your moment; when Moderat – German trio Sascha Ring, Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary – bowed out in 2017 ostensibly to pursue side projects their last gig was played to an audience of 17,000. This followed the release of their third album /// the previous year, but even they didn’t anticipated a gap of six years between that and it’s follow up.

Circumstances have been way beyond their control of course and without paradox dictated More D4TA‘s process, as the three relocated out of the studio and switched to file swapping domesticity instead. Much of the creative stimulus came from Ring’s visits to Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie museum, whilst thematically the torrent of information and mental often unwanted space which the pandemic allowed dominate.

If this sounds like the recipe for bleak introversion, then think again. Moderat’s strength has always been being adept at subtly mixing technology and humanity, manifested here in Ring’s spidery, vulnerable singing, whilst Drum Glow’s tribal polyrhythms and the banging trance of Neon Rats are reminder of their home city’s dominance of the form. More D4TA‘s peak is surprising amongst the harder scrabbling though, as More Love dazzles with festival ready vocoded pop sweetness. Leave on a high, come back on one.

You can read a full review here.