Bobby Royale & Tank Marwin – Under the Moon
Sometimes a cancelled project delivers something that says more than the original ever could have. That is exactly what happened with “Under the Moon”, the new album from Bobby Royale and their long-time collaborator Tank Marwin. The Swedish four-piece brings serious pedigree to the table: Gurra G is a former member of legendary Swedish hip-hop pioneers Just D; Isac Parker is an experienced underground rapper with deep roots in the Stockholm scene; Björn ‘Skiss’ Edqvist is a trumpeter whose credits stretch from Right Off and Tingsek to Loulou LaMotte; and Thomas Blindberg is a bass player who has recorded with Celine Dion, Britney Spears, and the Backstreet Boys. What sets the group apart is their approach to the music itself: this is hip-hop built on live instrumentation rather than samples and tape, with real musicians shaping the sound from the ground up. Originally conceived as a soundtrack for a dystopian Netflix series that never made it to air, Bobby Royale and Tank Marwin repurposed the material into a standalone ten-track album, and the result is one of the more distinctive releases of 2026.
The album’s origins as a soundtrack are impossible to separate from the music itself. Every track feeds into a loose narrative about a resistance movement operating under occupation, and the production carries the weight of that world. Tank Marwin moves effortlessly between jazz-laced underground beats and abrasive, noise-driven textures, creating an atmosphere that feels both cinematic and claustrophobic. Opening track “Under the Moon” sets the tone immediately: a world of civil unrest and industrial decay, raw and uncompromising.
From there, the album builds steadily. “Struggle Is Real” rides a bruising, off-kilter beat that gets right under the skin of its subject matter, while “Trapped” tightens the suffocating atmosphere further. “Uprising” and “Shadows of the City” fulfil their atmospheric role, but struggle to distinguish themselves as strongly as the standouts around them. These are the moments where the narrative scaffolding becomes a little too visible, where the music should really be speaking for itself. Fortunately, “Red Light, Green Light” and “Showdown” pull the album firmly back on track, with passages that feel like a genuine call to arms. On “Showdown”, Edqvist delivers a trumpet solo that gives the track warmth and spontaneity no sample library could replicate. Contributions from Cool Gate, Punk Babbitt, Seron, and Truescribe add further depth, ensuring the record never feels like a two-person echo chamber. “2:47am” closes that sequence as a dispatch from the quietest and most anxious hour of the night.
“A Better Day” and “For Family and Friends” then take their time to let everything settle, with a sense of resolution that earns its emotional weight. The duo describes the project as a reflection of ‘heavy control, civil war, and external threats,’ and by the final track, that description feels entirely fitting. “Under the Moon” is an album that knows what it wants to be. It carries the atmospheric depth of a film score and the directness of a hip-hop album, and that combination works. Bobby Royale and Tank Marwin have turned a cancelled project into something with its own distinct identity and staying power. (7/10) (Staarsound)
