David Long & Shane O’Neill: Moll & Zeis review – Reflective and creative tracks

You just carry on doing what you love, don’t you? Decades pass, and unless life has beaten you into submission, you dip into what carries you along. Here two Irish musicians (David Long and Shane O’Neill) with a personal history that stretches back to childhood and the interlinked naming of their respective successful 1980s bands – Into Paradise and Blue in Heaven – get it together again over the ether.

You might think that two former forceful lead singers (especially O’Neill, whose performative admiration of Iggy Pop was ferociously dedicated) would be in a race for supremacy. But maturity and mutual trust has sidelined such concerns. The truth is that Moll & Zeis is as even-handed a collaboration as they come, and is rooted as much in shared experiences as a continued love (and command) of music.

The songs vary in form but confidently reside on the more reflective end of the spectrum, with Go-Betweens hints here (Far from Home – “the morning light would be kissing the kitchen wall. Waking up, was I ever there at all?”) and there (For You – “on I go, through the wind, rain and snow…”).

Alongside the contemplative tunes are very cool slices of instrumental weirdness hanging up by no visible means in a dark corner of the room. But ultimately what emerges is a creative synergy that time hasn’t had the nerve toerase.

Listen here.