Label: MONKEYTOWN (Germany)
Catalog: MONKEY 122LP

LP version. For bands, a "hiatus" is usually just a polite way of announcing a break-up, but sometimes, a hiatus is just that -- a hiatus. Back in 2017, when Moderat announced that they'd be taking an extended break following a final concert in their hometown of Berlin, many assumed that the group was basically calling it quits. After all, they'd already completed a celebrated trilogy of albums, repeatedly broken into the pop charts and performed all around the globe (including Mainstage sets at some of the world's biggest festivals including Coachella, Roskilde, Rock Werchter, Glastonbury, Primavera, Sónar. and many many more) -- what else was left for the German trio to accomplish? Moderat, however, always knew that they'd find their way back to one another. MORE D4TA, the group's fourth album, arrives more than six years after its predecessor (2016's III), yet its contents are quintessentially Moderat. Although the trio's hiatus was absolutely real -- exhausted after years of touring, Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) and Modeselektor (aka Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) spent two years away from one another, focusing instead on their own respective projects -- once they decided to resume working together, the music (eventually) started flowing again. MORE D4TA is an album that wrestles with feelings of isolation and information overload -- issues that have become particularly pronounced. Many of its lyrics are rooted in Ring's frequent trips to Berlin's Gemäldegalerie museum (often with his infant daughter in tow), where he'd seek refuge in the great paintings of the past while worrying about the future.