Moth is a project by Heliconia guitarist/vocalist Michael Tickner, exploring different areas of sound outside the band format, experimenting with ambient and sample-based sounds.
His first release, a self-titled ep in late 2001, was played on the John Peel Radio 1 show. A second Moth ep, Making it Beautiful, was released in September 2003.
Since then Mike has been concentrating on his main band Heliconia and his other side project RomaKid.
Moth EP
Sparser than the Heliconia sound, the first Moth ep was characterised by delicate, downbeat grooves, looped and honed. All chiming guitars and ambient drones offset by skewed drums.
A review of the ep in Record Collector said it would make the ideal soundtrack to a holiday programme "if the show featured breaks in Afghanistan".
The release received more exposure when John Peel played Tibetan Summer from the EP on his Radio 1 show.
The four-track CD-R was released in a numbered limited edition of 50 which has long since sold out.
Making It Beautiful
Making it Beautiful was released in 2003, also on CD-R, though this time in a numbered limited edition of 100 copies.
In a shift from the delicacy of the first ep, the new tracks featured a harder, denser sound combining fifth-hand vocal samples with broken, distorting beats.