Name: Option Explore
Brand: Dylan Moon

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RVNGNL87LPC1

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Colour

Green

Colour details

Emerald Green

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-09-02

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0747742384943

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / green

RVNGNL87CD

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Extended format: No

2022-06-17

0747742384776

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

 Dylan Moon

Genre GB

Psychedelic

Label GB

Rvng

RVNG Intl. is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. Established in 2003 by a visionary individual, RVNG Intl. has been at the forefront of the music industry for over a decade.
With a commitment to pushing boundaries and nurturing unique talent, RVNG Intl. has earned recognition as one of the most influential labels in the industry. In January 2014, Resident Advisor named RVNG Intl. as their label of the month, highlighting their exceptional contributions to electronic music.
In addition to critical acclaim, RVNG Intl. has also garnered praise from Tiny Mix Tapes who listed them among their favorite labels of 2015. This accolade further solidifies RVNG Intl.'s reputation as a tastemaker and trendsetter within the music community.

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, colourful 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 Blues, 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.

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.