A little over a year since the release of their debut full-length album Artificial Pulse, Ex-Hyena have wasted little time in developing their follow-up, dropping Moon Reflections last week, single-handedly ushering in Hot Goth Summer. 

Darkwave synth music has a certain association with coldness, frigidity, gray winter-y tones. Ex-Hyena has deftly sidestepped that association with an album that – while full of dark grooves to keep the goths latched on – there’s something glittery and neon to the sound of Moon Reflections. Instead of soundtracking a cold winter’s day, it’s what the DJ plays deep into a hot summer’s night. It runs like a the score to a Lost Boys remake that hopefully never happens. 

The duo – comprised of Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak – sought to make something fantastical and imaginative with this project, a futuristic dystopian fever dream of an album. The album art (by Ian Adams) has tones of art nouveau, cyberpunk, and psychedelia; something like the Merry Pranksters driving their day-glo bus through The Matrix. 

Cover art by Ian Adams

According to the band, the new album has much more momentum and focus than its predecessor, due to a growing familiarity and sense of identity the band has on its sophomore release. “We pushed each other forward in a very organic way,” says Bettsak, “and I think we honed in more on the songwriting on Moon Reflections than we did for the first LP, where we were really just developing our sound.” 

The album’s 10 tracks feel very tight sonically, flowing into each other in a way that parallels the uptempo tracks with more lowkey and emotive ones; take for example the three track run of “Fractured” into one of the album’s true dance bangers “Nightmare Pills,” which in turn is followed up by “Tremors,” perhaps the most emotionally grounding on the album. When describing what he feels Ex-Hyena has achieved with this new release, Bettsak added, “All of the songs on Moon Reflections work well together, stylistically and thematically, yet each one has a unique reflection of its own. Musically, we were definitely trying new things — new synths, bigger beats, vocal layering, ebow guitar layers.” 

Stream Ex-Hyena’s Moon Reflections on the streaming service of your choice. Keep an eye out for Ex-Hyena’s August 24th show at O’Brien’s in Allston.