Past Presents

Josh Moore is a damn fine jazz drummer who lends his talents to acts like the Aakash Mittal Quartet, but Past Presents is a far cry from any of the jazz work he's done. With this solo project, he delves into indie and chamber rock, and he's equally adept at...

By Jon Solomon

April 18, 2012

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Josh Moore is a damn fine jazz drummer who lends his talents to acts like the Aakash Mittal Quartet, but Past Presents is a far cry from any of the jazz work he's done. With this solo project, he delves into indie and chamber rock, and he's equally adept at both. On We Should Start, his fifteen-track debut, Moore opens with "Coney Island," a dreamy song based around acoustic fingerpicking, then switches to the more propulsive "Another Fire" before returning to the gorgeous Radiohead-esque "Only Singing." At times, Moore's vocals sound like a cross between Blur's Damon Albarn and Talk Talk's Mark Hollis. The album, which was recorded and produced in his bedroom, finds Moore exploring what he describes as an early midlife crisis and the tension of feeling young and old at the same time. For his first solo outing, he's off to a decent start.

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