1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
excellent, October 30, 2009
This review is from: Sound Your Eyes Can Follow (Audio CD)
When Nirvana put out Nevermind in 1991, labels realized, again --Zonk!--that you could put bands out that had more than narley guitars or a cool beat. True, Nevermind was a guitar album, but it put vital music back on the labals and the radio. The floodgates had opened.
Moonshake was no grunge band, but were able to climb into that window Cobain had opened. This band used dissononet structres, heavy bass, off kilter horn parts, and a singer that had a pinprick, angry alto. Think of an extreamly dark, bad acid new wave circus with a lot of complex and full orchestrations. Then picture a slightly deranged man cranking this music out of a victrola on a street cornor. This is Moonshake.
In terms of texture, if you can conceive of the sound of a tape running backwards running forwards, this is what the band achieves. This was made in the mid-1990s, and I am sure the recording is digital, but Moonshake ace that creepy murk that you hear on old horror soundtracks, made before they learned to balance music's volume into film. But they move this to the foreground.
Out of their full lengths, this is the most fully orchestrated, with almost free-jazz horns that sit like marbles in Moonshake's viscus arrangments.
I was fortune enough to pick these albums up in the mid-90s when they were on the listening station at Tower Records for about six days, otherwise I would have no clue. For those who like the elegant left of center in music, take a chance and get this.
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