ALBUM REVIEW: Silver Moth – Black Bay

Bella Union

Released: 21.04.23

Silver Moth is a new seven-piece band featuring Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. That’s the headline pitch, but the ‘supergroup/collective’ isn’t a one-man show, it features various members of Abrasive Trees, Burning House and Prosthetic Head too, all convening to improvise together in the dramatic location of Black Bay Studios on the Isle of Lewis.

There was a collective sloughing of certainties and expectations, and the album is the sound of musicians yielding to shared goals. That these sessions birthed a serene mix of hushed incantations and molten guitars, 15-minute noise rock epics and healing psalms, is hardly surprising given the pressure cooker atmosphere they created. Black Bay is a true testament to connectivity, committing to something greater than the sum of its individual parts.