On Moon 2 Ava Luna's de facto band leader Carlos Hernandez steps back,
leaving space for the rest of the band members to step up and step into roles
they hadn't occupied on previous albums. Felicia Douglass (now a touring
member of Dirty Projectors) worked with percussion and sampler, Julian Fader
experimented with synths, nearly every band member ran the computer during
recording sessions, and Becca Kauffman (aka performance artist Jennifer
Vanilla) composed her first song for the group "On Its Side the Fallen Fire," a
deeply layered orchestral piece of Kate Bush grandeur meets Julia Holter
reverie.
Compared with previous Ava Luna albums, Moon 2 has fewer sharp turns into
dissonance, fewer celebratory guitar parts, none of Hernandez's signature
screams. Nevertheless, the infectious buoyancy of "Deli Run" and "Walking With
an Enemy," are warm and bright, and songs like "Centerline" and "Phoebe (Set
it Off)" venture confidently into pop territory. The title track, painting the elation
and tumult of a crush, is set against a swaggering reggae bassline and warbling
Kraftwerk synths. "It's like, every sci-fi movie has a nightclub," says Kauffman.
"These are the songs in that nightclub."
