- Artist
- Display Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Option / Explore
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL87DIGITAL
- Release Date
- September 2, 2022
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Vinyl 1×LP, Limited Coloured
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CD
$14.49Read MoreRVNGNL87CD
Genres
Press Release
Option Explore, Dylan Moon’s second full- length album, is a glassy-eyed survey of pop’s playing field both past and present, and a collection of clever, colorful songs filtered through frequencies, timbres, and dreams discovered and discarded while its maker shifts from one sub-genre to the next.
Option Explore signals a significant departure from Moon’s debut 2019 album Only the Blue s, which at its heart is a folk record from the forlorn fringes of psychedelia: a little mysterious, but ultimately lucid in its internal logic and generous with standalone, but sing- along, songs. Dylan’s 2020 EP Oh No Oh No Oh No suggested both a shift in his writing and listening habits, culminating with the 2021 compilation Moon’s Toons Vol. 1. On Option Explore, Moon willfully spins multitudes. With a careful study of synthpop, a penchant for warped yet unwavering guitar grooves, and an effortless songwriting ability, he leans into unlikely convergences, and arrives at something deeply futuristic in its disregard for genre sanctity.
A guiding principle for Option Explore was the “explore/exploit trade-off” concept, a behavioral mechanism of foraging (“the choice between exploiting a familiar option for a known reward and exploring unfamiliar options for unknown rewards”) which has been employed within computational neuroscience and psychiatry. Moon uses exploratory foraging as a manifesto for song construction: music without end, without limit. Many of these songs avoid conclusive compositional conventions, and sound more like turning a radio dial than pressing preset play. Tracks begin at what feels like a midpoint and fade out with little warning, adding to the sensation of sonic melt.
Listening to Option Explore, you can imagine the paths of songs not taken while choosing your own adventure with each listen. Opening chords that anticipate one direction and then adroitly go another, drafts of scrapped verses buried beneath toplines like digital palimpsests, and guitar and synth solos arranged in Escher-esque patterns, all indicate the hundreds of hours Moon spent arranging sound, which he nods to lovingly on “Again”: “I’ll do it again, again/Until the feeling’s right.”
Moon studied electronic production and sound design in music school, and found himself drawn to the exactitude of pop production. That purity is distilled on Option Explore to a potent effect: Moon acts as a kind of hyperliterate genre hijacker, pulling from Scritti Politti’s sophisti-pop aesthetic, Buddy Holly’s textbook chord progressions, and J Dilla’s scrappy architecture. But Moon chooses not to scaffold these reference points into formulaic songs, instead reassembling fragments from each as subconsciously recognizable moments. Option Explore is bricolage, never pastiche.
Moon’s reprocessing of forgotten digital timbres echoes the pop quality and oddity of Television Personalities or Cleaners From Venus , and subsequent revivalists like The Clientele and Cate Le Bon . But coding Moon’s studious scavenging and repurposing as simple nostalgia belies how imaginative it is. Picturing his process feels impossible, like trying to visualize a color you’ve never seen. Though Option Explore takes cues from many reference points, it ultimately chooses to explore something wholly new.
Dylan Moon’s Option Explore will be released by RVNG Intl. on June 17, 2022 on CD and digitally, with a vinyl version to follow in September. A portion of proceeds will benefit Downtown Women’s Center, the only organization in Los Angeles focused exclusively on ending women’s homelessness through housing, wellness, employment and advocacy.
Digital Tracklist
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1
10 Apples
2:50
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10 Apples
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2
Spandex Simple
2:59
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Spandex Simple
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3
Creaking
1:52
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Creaking
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4
Plot Points
1:55
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Plot Points
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5
Deep Time
3:13
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Deep Time
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6
Hmm
2:08
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Hmm
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7
Understand
3:34
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Understand
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8
I-80
2:08
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I-80
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9
Fortuna
2:28
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Fortuna
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10
Again
2:05
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Again
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11
Dröm
2:26
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Dröm
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12
Niddle Noddle
2:06
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Niddle Noddle
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13
Honey Dewy
2:41
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Honey Dewy
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14
Hello Mirage
1:43
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Hello Mirage
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15
Look
2:06
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Look
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Track List
- A1. 10 Apples
- A2. Spandex Simple
- A3. Creaking
- A4. Plot Points
- A5. Dröm
- A6. Hmm
- A7. Understand
- B1. I-80
- B2. Fortuna
- B3. Again
- B4. Deep Time
- B5. Niddle Noddle
- B6. Honey Dewy
- B7. Hello Mirage
- B8. Loo
Dylan Moon
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- Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Song & Dance
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL107DIGITAL
- Release Date
- June 16, 2023
- Download
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- Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Option Explore
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL87DIGITAL2
- Release Date
- June 17, 2022
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- Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Moon's Toons Vol. 1
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL075digital1
- Release Date
- May 14, 2021
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- Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Oh No Oh No Oh No
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL070digital
- Release Date
- October 23, 2020
- Download
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- Artist
- Dylan Moon
- ReleaseProduct
- Only The Blues
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL57LP
- Release Date
- August 30, 2019
- LP
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RVNG Intl.
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- Black Decelerant, Contour & Omari Jazz
- ReleaseProduct
- Reflections Vol. 2: Black Decelerant
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL98DIGITAL
- Release Date
- June 21, 2024
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- Artist
- Tashi Wada
- ReleaseProduct
- What Is Not Strange?
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL114DIGITAL
- Release Date
- June 7, 2024
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- Black Decelerant, Contour, & Omari Jazz
- ReleaseProduct
- two
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- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL98DIG1
- Release Date
- April 16, 2024
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- Tashi Wada
- ReleaseProduct
- Grand Trine
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL114DIG1
- Release Date
- April 9, 2024
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- Ka Baird
- ReleaseProduct
- Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL109DIGITAL
- Release Date
- March 22, 2024
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- Discovery Zone
- ReleaseProduct
- Quantum Web
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL112DIGITAL
- Release Date
- March 8, 2024
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- Horse Lords
- ReleaseProduct
- As It Happened: Horse Lords Live
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL115DIGITAL
- Release Date
- March 1, 2024
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- Ka Baird
- ReleaseProduct
- Gate IX
- Label
- RVNG Intl.
- Catalogue Number
- RVNGNL109DIG3
- Release Date
- February 28, 2024
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Experimental Pop and New Wave
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- Artist
- Sega Bodega
- ReleaseProduct
- True
- Label
- ambient tweets
- Catalogue Number
- at001D
- Release Date
- April 22, 2024
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- Sega Bodega
- ReleaseProduct
- Dennis
- Label
- ambient tweets
- Catalogue Number
- at001
- Release Date
- April 26, 2024
- LP
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- Bullion
- ReleaseProduct
- Affection
- Label
- Ghostly International
- Catalogue Number
- GI429DIGITAL
- Release Date
- April 26, 2024
- LP (special)
- CD
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- Artist
- Gaussian Curve
- ReleaseProduct
- Winter Sun / Fever Dream
- Label
- Music From Memory
- Catalogue Number
- MFM067
- Release Date
- August 2, 2024
- 12”
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- Björk and Rosalía featuring Olof Dreijer
- ReleaseProduct
- Oral (Olof Dreijer Remix)
- Label
- One Little Independent Records
- Catalogue Number
- 1941TP7DL
- Release Date
- April 10, 2024
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- Ruth Mascelli & Mary Hanson Scott
- ReleaseProduct
- Haunted Hearts
- Label
- Disciples
- Catalogue Number
- DISC23.75DL
- Release Date
- April 9, 2024
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- Reyna Tropical
- ReleaseProduct
- Malegría
- Label
- Psychic Hotline
- Catalogue Number
- PSY040DIGITAL
- Release Date
- March 29, 2024
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- Eartheater
- ReleaseProduct
- Powders
- Label
- Chemical X
- Catalogue Number
- CHMX016
- Release Date
- September 20, 2023
- CD
- Cassette
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Limited Editions
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- El Michels Affair
- ReleaseProduct
- Enter The 37th Chamber
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- Fat Beats Records
- Catalogue Number
- FB-5127-2
- Release Date
- May 7, 2009
- LP (special)
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- FONTAINES D.C.
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- Romance
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- XL Recordings
- Catalogue Number
- XL1436DA
- Release Date
- August 23, 2024
- LP (special)
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- Paul W. Teebrooke, Stasis
- ReleaseProduct
- Time Sensitive: Unreleased Sounds From The Otherworld Archives
- Label
- De:tuned
- Catalogue Number
- 5414180240470
- Release Date
- May 31, 2024
- 12”
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- ENC
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- ENC
- Catalogue Number
- ENCSE1
- Release Date
- May 10, 2024
- LP (special)
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- ReleaseProduct
- Do It Again
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- Catalogue Number
- DOG007
- Release Date
- May 23, 2014
- LP (special)
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- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Statik
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- Smalltown Supersound
- Catalogue Number
- STS428DIGITAL
- Release Date
- June 7, 2024
- LP (special)
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- Simon Fisher Turner
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- Instability of the Signal
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- Mute
- Catalogue Number
- ISTUMM504
- Release Date
- August 2, 2024
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