| Mooch
- The Crypt of the Artificial Intelligences / Golden Ear Machine 2cd set Mooch reissue double header number 2 The Crypt Of Artificial Intelligences (1994, but never released) is the 'missing link' between Starhenge and Postvorta. Golden Ear Machine (1998, never released) makes up this double album set of rare Mooch material. |
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 CD ONE - THE CRYPT OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES The album features many of the mid-nineties Mooch band members: Conan McPhee on bass, Cal Lewin on digital keyboards and Garry Lewin on analogue synth (a Korg MonoPoly to be precise). Remastered in 2007 by Steve Palmer from the original recordings. Tracks ... 1. Deep Space Qand-Aravanserai Rattling percussion and thumping bass drum underpin atmospheric radio effects and glissando guitar. A sub-bass anchors the whole piece 2. India Oceania (featuring Conan McPhee on bass) A 22-minute interstellar trip powered by drum-machine and Conan McPhee’s bass, featuring a menagerie of ghostly radio voices, guitar solos, effects and found sounds. Ethnically mesmeric 3. Al Jabr A two-minute audio essay 4. Brain-Map Bouncing sequences meet guitars and more atmospherics 5. The Crypt Jerry Kranitz says, “The Crypt is an often haunting, sometimes intense, image inducing track that is part soundtrack, part sound-art experimentation, and part space based progressive rock. It's a cinematic journey that includes some of the most challenging and adventurous music on the album” 6. Medina Oasis Jerry continues, “Medina Oasis picks up where The Crypt left off, using mostly guitar and effects to create a drifting and slightly jazzy ambient space excursion. The music has a kind of spaced out avant-garde soundtrack feel, occupying a dream realm, limbo or alternate dimension of lost souls. It's space ambient, yet colorful, full of character"
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 CD TWO - GOLDEN EAR MACHINE This album features Pete Wyer and Kordian Tetkov alongside Steve Palmer. Remastered by Steve Palmer in 2007 from the original digital recordings Tracks ... 1. Spiky The combination of Kordian Tetkov’s powerful drumming, Pete Wyer’s acoustic guitar and Steve’s synth washes create an intense sonic experience 2. West, East, West Psychedelic guitars, drums and sub-bass collide in space-rock fashion 3. From Dawn To Day To Dusk This 10-minute track has a krautrock feel, as Kordian’s subtle drumming underpins deeply reverberated guitar fragments and ethnic shards 4. Orbital Traffic Created from a drum loop of Kordian’s, the track bounces from section to section in hypnotic fashion, overlaid with synth solos, dubby delays and keyboard washes 5. Stellar Ritual A minimal xylophone sample begins a strange sonic trip through tinkling bells, ghostly synths and booming sub-bass. Cosmic indeed |
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| The first disc `The Crypt of Artificial Intelligences' was recorded straight
after `Postvorta'. The opener `Deep Space Qand-Aravanserai' is all rather crazed, like listening to a stoned tribe careering around a camp-fire, though it does become quite mellow nearer the end. `India Oceania' is long and gently melodic with little space guitar licks and all manner of percussion and effects coming and going, creating quite a hypnotic tripped out feel. There's also a gorgeous almost bluesy guitar solo at the end. `Al Jabr' is very syncopated with something of a `Canterbury' feel. `Brain-Map' uses a flutey sort of sequence as its base but I found it all just a bit strange though in a melancholy sort of way. `The Crypt' if anything starts even weirder, made up of a collage of sounds but we soon get into quite an infectious groove. This dies away and things become like a feverish dream, electronic shimmers and tinkling percussion mixing together to create a hallucinatory landscape. There is even an alarm clock in there! Rhythms return and it is as if we have woken up and immediately join in some crazed dance or ritual. We keep dipping in and out of the dream and back to the ritual. `Medina Oasis' is again all rather shimmering and dreamy but unlike the previous track, which I found a little uneasy at times, there is comforting warmth here that I found most appealing. The second disc `Golden Ear Machine' is a trio featuring Guitar, Drums and `Sounds'. There's a very abrupt drone based start to the opener `Spikey'-.made me jump anyway. This gradually subsides so that subtle percussion can be heard. All electronics momentarily depart and we are left with solo drums which are soon joined by guitar. Electronic Music this certainly ain't- more like weirdly appealing space rock / psychedelic combination. It's all rather freaked out, the gentle guitar mixing wonderfully with the crazed drums. The drums also kick up quite a groove on `West East West'. Shimmering electronics keep surging forward, sometimes giving the drums a break whilst at others providing additional colour with something of an `Eastern' feel, accentuated by some lovely atmospheric flute. `From Dawn Today to Dusk' begins with a laid back drone over which the drums once again assert themselves. Electronic colouring mixes with the drums well, combining to create quite a moody track. Really liked this one, having something of an Ash Ra Tempel feel. `Orbital Traffic' has a curious start, bass pulses mixing with electronic twitters before the drums once again get into their stride. `Stellar Ritual' is a very unusual piece mainly made up of Ethnic percussion creating quite a mystical hypnotic feel. This is the one track where conventional drums are not present thus providing some contrast to an album where they fairly dominate. This is my favourite disc in the Mooch reissue series so far. David Law / Synth Music Direct / MusicZeit Lead by Steve Palmer, Mooch from the UK has again released some vintage, psychedelic and instrumental ambient recordings. This double CD includes two previously unreleased albums. The Crypt of Artificial Intelligences was released in the beginning of 1994 and includes drum machine beats, electric guitar, ethnic instruments and short wave radio sounds. The first, rather special track ”Deep Space Qand-Aravanserai” also features brothers Garry and Cal Lewin with their keyboards. They can be heard more on the following year’s Starhenge album. The next track “India Oceania” lasts for over 20 minutes and Conan McPhee plays some Oriental scales with his bass on this one. The drum machine brings in a bit trance-like atmosphere to the track, but this still is pretty chill-out stuff. The track is almost danceable stuff, anyway, and also quite psychedelic. The Oriental radio samples are a nice and important extra feature. Also the number called “Al Jabr” has pretty intense machine drums and this one has a bit jazzy feel to it reminding me of early Ozrics a bit. The sequence-driven “Brain-Map” doesn’t have any drums and sort of brings to mind Ashra. The peacefully starting “The Crypt” is again kind of trance/techno styled stuff but with a rather experimental touch. The album closes with the cosmic, floaty and long “Medina Oasis” where Steve has used a lot of delay pedals. This album was supposed to be released on Taste after Starhenge but this never happened, so it’s very nice that the Mooch fans get to hear this now! Golden Ear Machine is an album that nobody, except Steve himself, has heard before this double issue. This was one of his first Mac based recordings and also the first Mooch session to feature a live drummer, Kordian Tetkov. The album’s opener “Spiky” also includes some acoustic guitar played by Pete Wyer which gives the track an unique flavor. “West East West” has rather groovy drums and experimental soundscapes. At times it goes into pretty hallucinatory places which suits me just fine, as you know. “From Dawn to Day to Dusk” begins very quietly with a little drone and the drums join it after about two minutes. There’s some more action in the middle, but the peaceful ending fades out slowly again. The better defined “Orbital Traffic” is closer to trip hop or electro and seems to have a looped drum beat. This sounds a bit like The Orb, I suppose. There are plenty of synths in there and the rhythms work very well. The album finishes with the minimal and monotonic “Stellar Ritual”. This is clearly not one of the best Mooch albums but still not bad at all. DJ Astro, Finland
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