Customer Reviews

Mokoondi

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is a rhythmic piece of essential listening. Between the drum breaks and brilliant orchestrations of guitar, keyboard , vibes and chinese harp you are unwittingly transported to a realm of pure imagination. The first two pieces alone are an e.p. in themselves. Anyone with an interest in dub, jazz, or creativity must check this album out.

Life is not without surprises, and surely enough Mice Parade's "Mokoondi" is one. A colleague brought their album in the eve of their concert in town (Orlando, FL) and, to my amazement, this NY band has it all. A fresh sound unlike any other, blending in a solid rhythm backbone (drums and bassline actually seem to be at the heart of all songs) with standard instruments hovering around it in a planetary system fashion, and an eclectic array of instruments, ranging from chinese harp (cheng) and dulcimer, to violin and sax.

There are certain elements from fusion (like in the title track), old ambient (Harold Budd and Brian Eno) and samples of world music, to be found in this album, bound to please a wide audience. This is Hugo Largo meets Brand X meets a Real World Records sampler, however you can imagine all that in a blend of music. All in all, it's good stuff, worth checking out.

Another powerful concoction of percussion-based cultural eclecticism lingers in more ambiance than other releases but still adds up to an intoxicating whole in a wholly underrated discography.

Although I have only 'sampled' each of the tracks so far, and am at the moment only listening to the fourth track in my first full journey though the album, I am blown away by the overall ambience of this superb collection of tunes.

While this is not my preferred musical genre - I am more into ascerbic electronica (Autechre, Aphex Twin, Oval, Pole etc); 'industrial' grunge (Hafler Trio, Nurse with Wound, Faust and the like); and contemporary "classical" music (Part, Ligeti, Gorecki, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Glass etc) - all of the music on this album strikes a chord for me, both cerebrally and emotionally.

If you are into cross-over jazz or the place at which 'esoterica' and acoustic music meet, this is an essential album for your collection. There is so much organically wholistic and skilled musicianship on this album, that you would have to be musically brain-dead to not be moved by it (I'm not suggesting that everyone would like it, as it's pretty eclectic). The blending of electric and acoustic instruments, often punctuated and accompanied by cultured beats, is just superb. The use of instruments such as cheng (Chinese harp), cymbalom and dulcimer add wonderful variety to what could have just been a 'nice' album.

I won't bother picking out any 'favourite' tracks, as it's just not that kind of album. I think this will be a welcome CD to act as a calming interlude between my listens to more aurally challenging music. Warm and engaging, I would find it hard to compare this music to anything else I have heard - it creates its own style. While there are minor similarities to Four Tet (some who have bought this have also bought Four Tet stuff according to the link below), for me Mice Parade is streets ahead in terms of musicianship, production and consistency.

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!