Earlier this fall, in a small NoDa architectural studio converted into a performance space for the night, the Charlotte trio Moenda debuted a new as-yet-untitled composition. Setting aside his drum kit, Davey Blackburn traversed the open space playing a berimbau, a bow-and-gourd instrument central to the Afro-Brazilian martial arts practice of capoeira, and new to Moenda's six-part suite, as well. Guitarist Russ Wilbanks coaxed percussive tones from his instrument with a set of darning needles and keyboardist Robin Doermann comped thick chords on an old Moog.
The tempos and dynamics ebbed and flowed, seeming to reach for common ground at some points and rejecting it at others. Though more subdued without drums than Moenda's usual songs, it had the feel of free music but was clearly not improvised. Like the band's eponymous debut full-length, which Moenda celebrates with a release party Dec. 10 at Snug Harbor, the band obsessively tinkered with the music until the parts all fit — or didn't quite fit, if that's what was called for.
"We're not trying to all assimilate perfectly, and we're all not off doing our own thing," says Wilbanks, who together with Blackburn, Doermann and the since-departed Steven Pilker formed Moenda in late 2008. "There's a nice tension there that we really enjoy."
The nine tracks on Moenda illustrate the point. These songs state their case in dynamically tight three- to five-minute blasts. At times, dance tempos grind and fracture like fault lines into layers of carefully considered digital noise. Elsewhere, tempos hurtle forward in near-speed metal unison until an Afro-Latin polyrhythm or jazz beat opens into more restrained, nearly ambient dimensions.
Not surprisingly, it's tough tagging what Moenda is actually up to. Aesthetically, New York's '80s No Wave might come to mind, but these aren't Sonic Youth feedback workouts or La Monte Young-inspired drones. Members of the band cite everything from Fugazi and early Gang Gang Dance to Tito Puente and Sade for inspiration, while other writers have mentioned Fuck Buttons and Zs as fellow travelers.
Wilbanks, before turning to experimental filmmaking in the decade prior to Moenda, played in various Lexington, Ky., "artisanal noise projects" in the late '90s with members of Hair Police, who went on to form noise mongers Wolf Eyes. For their part, Blackburn and Doermann formed two-thirds of Charlotte's math-y punk rock outfit, Calabi Yau.
Elements of those acts pop up in Moenda's music, but what emerges is something uncategorizable — and that suits the trio just fine. "We are committed to go back to zero with each song," Wilbanks says of the band's songwriting technique, which consists of improv painstakingly hammered into strict song parts. "We'll just obsess on those parts until we've refined them," Doermann says. "So by the time we're done writing, there's not any variation in there."
To ensure songs don't slip into patterns, Wilbanks, for instance, relies on alternate tunings, including the Ostrich guitar — where all strings are tuned to the same pitch class — used by the Velvet Underground. Rather than replicate Lou Reed's drone, the guitar is more of a percussive tonal instrument than melody maker — Wilbanks jokes that he spends more time at "Hobby Lobby than Sam Ash."
Melody is another minefield. Moenda uses it, but not in the familiar ways of popular Western music. "I love melody," Doermann says, "and I'll try and incorporate it, but it's not always going to fall with the same tonic where people are recognizing how the melody fits."
"Sometimes it's tedious," Blackburn concedes of the songwriting, while Wilbanks adds that it's as "rigorous" as anything he's been involved with. They love it, but say process is one of the reasons Pilker left last summer. (The split was amicable, and Pilker will be on stage for the CD release.) They're confident they've overcome his departure, but are wary about falling into patterns without an adventurous digital presence to rely on.
Which brings us back to the beats. Percussion is at the heart of Moenda's music, and Blackburn is certainly one of the city's most musical — and at live gigs, watchable — drummers. Incorporating his interests in capoeira, including its traditional three- or four-toned instrumentation like the berimbau, is opening new worlds for Moenda. The band is even tabbing one of the tradition's current mestres (or "masters") as part of an opening act capoeira for the CD release.
However that tradition and instrumentation works its way into Moenda's music, it will still be subject to the band's strict composition standards. "It's not just about making an interesting sound," Wilbanks says. "It's like, this part has to have some kind of dynamic function with the other two parts."
MOENDA EP Release
With The Eastern Seaboard, Mestre Esquilo and Charlotte Capoeira. Dec. 10. 10 p.m. Snug Harbor. www.snugrock.com.