Hyde Out’s Moonfactory: The Four Britpop and Folk-Pop Tracks Its Reviewers Kept Naming
5 min read
Hyde Out's Moonfactory: The Four Britpop and Folk-Pop Tracks Its Reviewers Kept Naming
Thirteen Songs Recorded in Four Countries Brought the London Duo Back to Its Softer Side
Thirteen tracks, four recording locations and one clear pattern in the reviews. Hyde Out, the London duo of Omar Merlo and Jaka Levstek, released Moonfactory on 6 November 2024. It mixes 90s Britpop, 60s and 70s folk and 80s electropop under a modern rock finish. Nearly two years on, it is still the clearest answer to who this band is for.
Hyde Out’s Dedicated to the Ones Who Want Me Dead sits in the playlist below among this desk’s rock, alternative rock and indie picks. Moonfactory reached BestMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Play the track, then read on for the reviews that kept naming it.
Who Moonfactory by Hyde Out Is For, From 90s Britpop Loyalists to Folk-Pop Listeners
The short answer is listeners who grew up on British guitar pop and never stopped buying records. The band’s own site describes Moonfactory as a blend of 90s British indie rock, 70s folk and 80s pop rock. Reviewers widened that to take in 60s folk and 80s electropop. The centre still holds: melody first, guitars second, a modern finish on top.
That places the album close to Travis and The Man Who, the 1999 record that swapped Britpop swagger for softer, melodic songwriting. The comparison is about temperament rather than sound. Hyde Out work in the same register of hooks that land quietly and choruses that build rather than shout. Testing Melodies went further and heard Radiohead and Creep in Powder-Coated Penguin in Undisclosed Location.
It also suits listeners who come to guitar music for the words. Jyla’s Blog heard themes of love, loss, resilience and self-discovery across the tracklist. Akt Music noted how Cityscape 49 and Kryptonite turn towards urban and psychological subjects, with more energy behind them. So the record rewards two kinds of attention: a casual listen for the hooks, and a closer one for what the songs say.
The Duo Behind the Record, and Where It Sits in the Hyde Out Catalogue
Hyde Out formed in 2014, and the pair took their time. Merlo has led bands across Europe and Australia, while Levstek built his craft working with popular and classical musicians. After a self-produced demo album in 2018, their first studio album, Smoke and Mirrors, arrived in 2020 and leaned soft and melodic. Tunnel Vision followed in January 2022 with a harder rock edge and the singles Over This, When the Winter Comes and Armchair Uprise.
Moonfactory is the swing back. Reviewers at Akt Music and Jyla’s Blog both read it as a return to the softer style of Smoke and Mirrors, now with a wider palette. The sessions spread across London, New York, Switzerland and Australia. That range shows in how far the album travels between eras without losing its footing.
What 11 Reviews Agreed On, Track by Track
The album drew reviews in English, French and Spanish. Among them were Akt Music, Testing Melodies, Muse Chronicle, HailTunes, Jyla’s Blog and RGM. The list continues with Less Than 1000 Followers, Extravafrench, Iggy Magazine, La Caverna and Indie Treasure, and Alte Magazine covered it too. Set side by side, those 11 reviews agree on a short list.
- Dedicated to the Ones Who Want Me Dead. Named in nine of the 11. Muse Chronicle picks it as a favourite and follows how it grows from a simple guitar melody into electrified riffs.
- Firefly. Also nine. The band’s own site calls it Britpop-infused.
- Only Words. Nine again. The band describes it as a folk-pop ballad, and Extravafrench singles out its mix of poetic introspection and a melody that lingers.
- Games We Play. Eight. HailTunes points to its catchy hooks and playful pop rock.
The pattern matters for new listeners. Those four tracks cover the album’s full range, from its darkest guitar song to its gentlest ballad, so they work as a fair sample of the whole.
Just behind them sits the album’s lighter turn. Go High appears in six reviews, and Akt Music heard hope pushed to the front on it and on Bring On. HailTunes, meanwhile, picked out the vocal harmonies on Another Life and Bring On.
Where to Start With Moonfactory by Hyde Out, and What Came Next
Hyde Out have kept moving since. A new single, Call Me Crazy, arrived on 8 June 2026. For anyone who finds the band through Moonfactory, the catalogue offers an easy route in. Start with the four tracks above, then work back to Tunnel Vision for the heavier side.
BestMusic.News curator team: “Moonfactory earns its place in our rotation on sequencing as much as songs. It opens on Oblivious and closes on a reprise of it. That bookend turns material drawn from several decades of British and folk songwriting into one continuous record.”
Follow Hyde Out on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, and watch their YouTube channel. Keep up with the band on Instagram and Facebook, while the official site collects the full catalogue.
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