Der Ohlsen
"[...] The Distaff is an impressive journey through dynamics and emotions. From the small and brittle to the surprisingly crushing and cathartic it's an amazingly beautiful achievement. And it does it all in complete defiance of genre conventions [...]"
Nickie Harte Kelly
Maud the Moth returns with this astonishing tour de force. I’m not always a fan of operatic vocals, but this hits all the right notes for me. “Distaff,” refers to the female side, deriving from the wooden rod used for spinning, and is symbolic of rigidity imposed upon women by many societies and individuals. The release unflinchingly explores the theme of trauma and recovery, in all of its complexity. A profoundly rewarding listen, disturbing and exultant.
Favorite track: Despeñaperros.
progdolphin
As natural as breath to a body gasping, and as natural as my own breath leaving mine with every passing moment, The Distaff rises and falls with a lurch and solemn acceptance of life unfolding. Finding harmony amonst waves and ripples of discord, Maud the Moth lives a sonic statement all its own: one part voice wild and unwavering, one part subtle rhythms that carry ethereal soundscapes, one part swelling piano textures, all wrapped in an unmistakable bleeding heart.
Favorite track: Fiat lux.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
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£8GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12" BLACK vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 200 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
£21GBPor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12" BLACK vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 200 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
€24EURor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12" CLEAR vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 200 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
£21GBPor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12" CLEAR vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 200 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
€24EUR
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
£11GBPor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
€12EURor more
Cassette + Digital Album
Pro-dubbed cassette with unique packaging including die cut outer sleeve, die cut j-card and two collectable cigarette cards.
Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
12" CLEAR RED vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 100 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
Sold Out
12" vinyl (Clear Red) - SHIPS FROM UK
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12" CLEAR RED vinyl version of "The Distaff". Pressed by Mad Vinyl (Madrid, Spain)
Limited to 100 copies worldwide. Mockup picture - Layout will vary slightly.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Distaff
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Fuera de si, se adentró en el cuerpo de las dos.
Sarmiento envenenado
Y la acequia ahoga la vid
Peste negra en la raíz.
Simiente que se ha echado a perder.
My body is a temple by the river, a crypt of flesh turned to stone.
A gate wide open, a safeguard to the heavens.
Trodden, sheltering heart.
A granary: all husk, all animal feed.
A shallow urn overflowing
With bile and honey, embalming pride
green and glowing, marrow and wine
With penitent, flaming hearts
over the fields sowed with salt
My flowing body drinks from the marshes and the solace of song
And the grazing animals feed on the roots below the mud in my banks
My flowing body between the reeds that drone the chanters of men
And my body is not enough, my body is not enough
My body by the temple is a river, a house of red clay and straw
The sky splits like spoilt milk
while all rests asleep
an eye always open
uprooted antiques
But inside me there's a crack
where the light can never reach
Inside me flows a vein of molten ore gone bitter
Miscarried,
lies on the floor
Shame, creeps, red
New flesh torn
And this self
discarnate
I do not recognise
No more
No more
The sky wakes to an untouched meal.
Ringless left and burdened right.
One steers the oar. One stokes the fire.
Word and flame incarnate. A heavy crown.
A mouth to feed. A dog to guard the house.
Shame spins the wheel. Swollen breasts heavy with greed.
In The Holy Sisterhood of Grief
Leave these weaving hands, untamed, to bury all your dead
To pour the oil that fuels the lantern.
To illuminate a path untrodden.
Child bound in the cradle, brine boils in the hearth.
Crimson robed and starved, holds the distaff
Crimson robed and marked for sacrifice
I’ll house a pack of nesting beasts open and honest in my bed
All arms and breath and swirling shores
And opium eyelids drop
Like curtain calls
Mouths filled with grace, hands clenching flesh
To feed you all my pain.
Skin breaks like lace, so bleached, in shreds
like seaweed drifting looms
Translucent bones
A draining bathtub
A mirrorlike lake
To wash our bodies
To soil our face
A trail of pelts and broken bones
And friendships with the drowning
Swallows diving in a pool of sorrow
Imperfect to the eyes of god
And through these walls turned sinew and skin all cracked like dawn
Under the weight of their expectations
Naked and open
Milk turns to earth in my breast
and my shoulder blades
are tectonic plates
swimming away
from my spine
unbraced
A choir of angels: featherless, vengeful
descending like a wake
descending
In circles
Blood of the father
Flows through the son
Drips through the fingers, viscous and warm
Furrows be open. Wide for his seed
White sheets unfurling
In the balcony.
Eyes of the child.
Violet smears.
She closed the door.
I disappeared.
Keyhole distorts the light
Beast of burden rise
Kindred bodies dissolve
Dehooved and mute in the barn
One thousand lives filtered you through porous flesh and still placentas.
Pearlescent brow
Primordial crown of stars dissevered, vast and verdant
Breeder of chance
credits
released February 21, 2025
Music and lyrics: Amaya López-Carromero
Piano, voice, psaltery, hyperpiano and percussion: Amaya López-Carromero
Guitar, Moog and saxophone: Scott McLean
Drums and percussion: Sebastian Rochford
Cello: Alison Chesley (Helen Money)
Violin: Fay Guiffo
Sound design by Scott McLean and Amaya López-Carromero
Produced by Scott McLean and Amaya López-Carromero
Mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road (London)
Mixed by Scott McLean
Recorded at Gorbals Sounds (Glasgow), The Shelter (London) and Neon Fable (Edinburgh) between January and July of 2024 by Scott McLean and Amaya López-Carromero.
Art direction and artwork by Amaya López-Carromero
Original photo by Demelza Kingston, styled by Michelle Watson.
This album was funded by Creative Scotland.
**********************************************************************************
¨The Distaff wears in bold and uncharted tapestry its heart-wrenching endeavors. Without a peer, Maud the Moth threatens to fly freely at the top of its own constructed throne.¨ - ANGRY METAL GUY 5/5 album review
¨To listen is to labour. The artist demands not passive consumption but active communion—an emotional and intellectual plunge into the darkest corners of the self. The reward, for those willing to brave the journey, is a rare equilibrium: a balance of beauty and brutality, where closure emerges from the chaos like a fragile moth from its cocoon. Devotees of the extreme, the experimental, and the deeply human will find in The Distaff a work that moves body, mind, and soul—a coruscating rush of sound striking steel, resounding with the grief and grit of survival.¨ - SENTINEL DAILY
“As timely as it is powerful…her most challenging but ultimately rewarding album yet…its power is palpable throughout.” - PROG
“the piano keys in 'Burial Of The Patriarchs' sounding as though they're creeping through castle corridors, the thunderclap guitars on 'Despeñaperros'...” - ELECTRONIC SOUND
“unapologetically rapturous, as if all the performers are playing magnesium flames as musical instruments” - EVERYTHING IS NOISE
“… unfolds like a modern-day, avant-garde opera filled with incomprehensible levels of drama, beauty and pain.” - THE SKINNY
“an artist as intense as Keeley Forsyth, as singular as Joanna Newsom and as dramatic as Diamanda Galas… An operetta set in song, López-Carromero’s thrilling soprano yearns, gliding over the cymbal splashes and scratchy harmonics..." - BACKSEAT MAFIA
"... filled with eerie keys, dramatic volume shifts and diaphanous vocals” - GET IN HER EARS
“an impressive re-imagining of the post-classical form” - BACKSEAT MAFIA - 8.9/10 album review by John Parry
“a cipher of womanhood, transgenerational trauma, of identity unraveled and rewoven through time by the hands of those who came before, and those who follow. There is something ancient about it, something almost inescapable, an organic quality as natural as the turning of the seasons, as instinctive as birds’ chirping.” - LOUD WOMEN - album review by Diana Revell (21st Feb)
“bubbling in the crucible of these songs is that exceptional voice which has with the mercurial dexterity to punch through granite as well as offer up a tenderness that is heart-breaking” - JOYZINE - album review (22nd Feb)
“Its thematic content is rich – exploring trauma, memory and catharsis – and with each listen reveals further layers of intrigue and ideas. Its unexpected, sparse, yet heavy sonic craft is compelling, particularly in its rich falsetto harmonies. Yet the whole thing is escalated through intent. Its off-kilter and thunderous nature directly expresses the vivid and indistinct recollection of childhood. It makes for a compelling experience.” - DISTORTED SOUND MAG - 8/10 album review by Chris Hart (20th Feb)
“a deep, meaningful and transcendental experience that is hard to liken with anything else… essential listening” - NOIZZE UK - 8/10 album review (20th Feb)
“It connects antiquity with the present, it builds bridges, it is about the human condition.” - VEIL OF SOUND - album review (20th Feb)
“a ferocious piece of work… the musicianship is off the scale” - MOONBUILDING - included in newsletter roundup (21st Feb)
“immediately becomes the defining album of her Maud the moth project… deeply moving and memorable ” - BOOLIN TUNES - 9/10 album review by Dobbin Thomas (20th Feb)
“solidifies Maud The Moth as a unique and compelling voice in contemporary music, offering an album that will resonate deeply with those willing to embrace its darker, introspective journey… a hauntingly beautiful and thought-provoking experience that lingers long after the music fades.” - OUT OF RAGE - album review (20th Feb)
“unapologetically rapturous, as if all the performers are playing magnesium flames as musical instruments” - EVERYTHING IS NOISE - album review (18th Feb)
My other band's debut album. I might be a bit biased :_) but i think it's very good :3
It's me singing but heavier. and sadder. and more guitars. maud the moth
Electro-pneumatic church organ meets noise doom in the latest outing of our close collaborator and friend Rylan Gleave. Co-produced and mixed by Scott. maud the moth
A truly original blend of haunting electronics and gothic drama mirroring the complex and unknowable nature of human emotions. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 30, 2023