Cancer House – The Moth – EP Review
by Killian Laher

A mysterious band by the name of Cancer House have emerged slowly and quietly from Chicago.  Their debut EP, which was released recently, is one for fans of slow, moody music.  It opens with the downbeat Camera Obscura, which creeps slowly into view with ghostly, clean guitar lines and snatches of dialogue, ambling moodily along for four minutes.  If slow guitars can sound bereft of hope, that’s exactly what they do on Waterscene, along with some strange, indistinct singing.

In My Pocket A Letter, A Red Wrecked Line is darker still but is a really beautiful track with lush guitar lines, mournful viola and the most haunting vocals.  The epic Flowers Over There is really odd, in a good way.  It’s built on the wheezing of a machine with yet more haunting vocals and guitar in the background before a ringing Mogwai-style guitar line comes in 90 seconds from the end, followed by cathartic, guttural roaring a minute later.

The heavy bass and grim rumblings of Bloodchimes call to mind the much-missed The For Carnation as it crawls desolately along, and the EP finishes with another moody instrumental, the title track.  It’s a bleak and beautiful way to spend half an hour, and one of the finer EPs you’ll hear this year.  It’s available here: https://motionward.bandcamp.com/album/the-moth

Camera Obscura