Room for the Moon is thrillingly weird experimental pop

For obvious reasons, I’ve had Moon on the mind all week. So I was trying to figure out what I should recommend this week that would thematically fit. Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks is incredible, and if you haven’t listened to it, go do that now. But it also seemed a bit on the nose. Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool also came to mind. But it also felt a bit obvious. Then I remembered Kate NV’s Room for the Moon, a record I had on repeat in 2020.

Russian artist Kate Shilonosova chases ideas across 11 tracks inspired by Russian and Japanese pop from the ‘70s and ‘80s, as well as children’s movies. This obviously leads Room for the Moon to indulge its most whimsical impulses. It’s a fairytale rendered in snappy Talking Heads-esque bass, proggy synths, and reverbed drum machines.

The opener “Not Not Not” is almost goofy, its chaotic melodies constantly dancing around each other in a perpetually disorienting way. It lurches forward asymetrically, grooving like a flat tire. The instrumental “Da Na” follows, drawing on a familiar yet slightly uncanny palette of sounds. The clarinet (?) drifts in and out of dissonance as if drunk. The tuned percussion elements flit around what might be a kenari seed shell shaker or someone running their fingers over the tines of a comb. It’s truly impossible to tell, and both seem as likely as the other.

“Sayonara (Full Moon Version)” is the fantastical daydream counterpart to Oingo Boingo’s nightmare new wave theatrics. The least strange track on the record is probably “Plans,” which fully embraces 80s dance pop aesthetics. But even that song finds room for a minute-long instrumental passage featuring a bleating, almost atonal saxophone solo.

While the sounds are strange, uneasy, and almost queasy at times, the songs are light and fantastical. Despite not understanding the lyrics, which are mostly in Russian, it’s impossible not to get a sense of hope from them. Kate NV’s Room for the Moon is not a somber lunar lullaby, but the pleasant dreams of an innocent mind.