On Repeat: Moon Hooch

Over the past week I've had the pleasure of coming across the Brooklyn trio, Moon Hooch. The band is formed of saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen, and drummer James Muschler who, as the story goes, met as students at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.

The trio began their band by busking, most popularly on subway platforms in Brooklyn, where they began to initiate impromptu raves that were regularly shut down by the NYPD. They call the Moon Hooch sound 'cave music', developing around the approach of playing dance music, with trance-like drumbeats and looping, frenetic saxophone grooves. 

The band recorded their self-titled debut last year in 2013 over a 24 hour period, and because of their consistent busking and rehearsal regime, most of the songs were recorded in one take. The result was a record which captured the essence of Moon Hooch's early subway performances: frantic, horn-y, dance-able grooves, accompanied by fast and furious drumbeats.

Perhaps the last song on the album 'Mega Tubes', which featured vocals by Alena Spanger, was an premonition of Moon Hooch's future. Whilst maintaining Muschler's infectious live beats and the saxophone grooves of Wilbur and McGowen, it underlines a change from their earlier songs, with an added electronic, synthy element. 

And this is the direction that their new album 'This is Cave Music' has taken. Whilst the new tracks maintain the infectious horn grooves and frenetic drumbeats, they also incorporate more vocals, synths and 'dubby' basslines alongside a greater production value. Whereas their debut was about capturing the feelings of live performances, their followup is more concerned with attention to detail, and developing an electronic dance element into the music.

Once you listen to one of Moon Hooch's songs, its very hard not to smile and refrain from getting caught in their fun and playful grooves. You can listen to their first album on Spotify, or on their bandcamp, and you purchase both albums via the official Moon Hooch website.

Thursday Night Live: Nils Frahm - Toilet Brushes/More (Live in London)

Nils Frahm is a German musician/composer/brilliant pianist. His most recent release, 'Spaces' in 2013, is a compilation made up of live recordings from his performances and shows. Whereas some of the live songs have featured on previous albums, the majority of the recordings on 'Spaces' were previously unreleased.

One of these unreleased songs is entitled 'Toilet Brushes-More', and it is definitely on of the best, emotive songs on the album. Although the live video above is different to the recording on the album, it is longer, and, in my own personal opinion, a better version. 

The track starts off with Nils creating a dub-inspired sound with a couple of toilet brushes and an open piano. He moves on to play the piano the more conventional way, incorporating a keyboard to create a beautiful ambient, spacey intertwining piece of music. 

This then builds to the beginning of the end of the song, moving onto the piano, with some delayed echo/reverb effects, Nils plays a frenetic melody, which becomes more and more frenetic, busy and out of tune, building and sprawling out into every corner of the venue.

The live video of the performance gives you a sense of the emotion and skillfulness of Nil's playing that the album's version just misses. Its just an awe-inspiring piece of live music.

Bulletin: Gareth Dickson - Invisible String

I have only recently come across Glasweigan folk-ambient artist Gareth Dickson, whose recent LP entitled 'Invisible String' was released last week. The whole album was recorded live in different locations, with applause ending each song, and a couple of tracks beginning with a bit of Dickson conversing with his audience.

Dickson's voice is reminiscent of Nick Drake, and he sings in a beautifully soft and quiet tone. His vocals are accompanied with his acoustic guitar, usually lush repetitive melodies which sometimes unravel and develop into simple, yet sparse arrangements. 

In addition to Gareth's singing and guitar playing, I also love the whole atmosphere of the record. Whilst it is just Dickson and his instrument (possibly with some additional acoustic backup), the places in which the songs were recorded give the guitars a wonderful reverb. And so as he strums and plucks away on his guitar, the notes and chords just linger and echo, as if you're stuck listening in some personal void.

Whilst only different live performances are all over Youtube, Gareth Dickson's album 'Invisible Strings' is available to stream here on Spotify, and can also be purchased here at Norman Records.

Friday Night Live: St Paul & The Broken Bones - A Take Away Show

St Paul and The Broken Bones are a seven piece soul band from Alabama, formed of a drummer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, trombone player, trumpet player and vocalist called Paul Janeway who has one of the best, most refreshing voices in music (in my opinion).

Whilst I'm not a particularly huge fan of the soul genre, it is very hard not to enjoy the performance that Paul and his band give to the streets of Paris in this edition of La Blogotheque's Take Away Show series. 

Their recent album 'Half The City', released earlier this year, is a record full of big brass, soulful tunes, as you would expect.  But these two live performances with no amplifiers or electronics really show off the rawness of Paul's voice - the way he fills the whole of a courtyard with the sound of his singing in the video of the album title track 'Half the City' is stunning, you get goosebumps.

Add on the fact that his dancing is smooth.

On Repeat: The Caretaker

James Leyland Kirby has been making music since 1996, first starting out under the project name of V/Vm. Since his early years he has put out an array of records under his own name, as well under the moniker of The Caretaker (inspired by a scene from the Stanley Kubrick film 'The Shining').

Kirby first released the first album as The Caretaker in 1999, entitled 'Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom', a nod to the project's inspiration. The album featured dark ambient passages, and fuzzy recordings of orchestral ballroom and waltz music, and also included Kirby's 'take' on The Shining's Al Bowlly song 'Midnight and the Stars and You'.

The Caretaker moniker gained recent attention from the musical community with the release of 2011's 'An empty bliss beyond this world'. The songs are crafted from snippets of a 'mysterious collection of 78s', and the album features the clearest sounding music from the The Caretaker project, apart from a few crackles from the record player.

As someone who had never previously listened to any of Kirby's Caretaker records, the album's faded sounds of piano and orchestral instrumentation, clear enough to distinguish yet still feeling distant, and the atmosphere that these loops of 1920's/30's music conjured up was an immense, moving experience (even more so because I listened to it at night). 

I especially loved the feeling of depth and distance in some of the songs, as if someone was playing it in the next room or down the hallway. As Kirby's defines the album's music as a reflection of 'the ability of Alzheimer's patients to recall songs of their past', you do feel as though you're trying to remember a song from distant years, but only remembering a certain part of the melody.

The whole album is available to listen to on Youtube (see link above), or can be listened to and downloaded with all of The Caretaker's other albums on The Caretaker official bandcamp page.

Sunday Morning Live: Darkside - Paper Trails Live on KCRW

Darkside are a duo of experimental dance music producer Nicholas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington. Jaar began making music back in 2008, although only recently in 2011 released his acclaimed debut album 'Space Is Only Noise'. Harrington was recruited by Jaar as a touring guitarist in support of the album, and it was also during the tour that the two musicians formed the partnership known as Darkside.

The duo released 'Psychic' in 2013, which was an interesting experimental blend of genres. The track 'Paper Trails' was one of my personal favourites, and it is the grooviest, most accessible moments on the album. 

The bassline and beat from Jaar with Harrington's bluesy guitar make a great combination, and this live performance on American radio station KCRW takes the 4:50 track, and drags it out into an epic 12 minute long version.

On Repeat: The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s

As British band that formed in the mid-nineties amid the era of Brit-pop and musical dominance of bands such as Oasis and Blur, The Beta Band developed an original, experimental sound of folk music blended with electronica.

The band's first releases were three individual E.P.s, 'Champion Versions' in '97, 'The Patty Patty Sound', and 'Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos' both in '98. All three E.P.s were then brought together onto one album compilation entitled 'The Three E.P.'s'.

Its a brilliant album, each song a product of the band's original experimentation that has brought them a cult status since their breakup in 2004. The first song 'Dry the Rain', one of their best ever songs, begins the record with an understated, lo-fi drum beat and acoustic guitars and evolves into an uplifting, anthemic sound of horns, big full beats and a harmonic chorus proclaiming 'I will be your light'.

There are few experimental jams on the compilation too, songs such as 'I Know', 'B+A', 'Inner Meet' and 'The House Song', which are mostly instrumental, with either no lyrics, or a couple of repeated lines (or a French sounding rap on the latter track). But my favourite is 'She's the One', which begins with a mouth-harp and some percussion and then warm, continuous acoustic strums. Over this Steve Mason just spouting out almost nonsensical lyrics, but constantly repeating the simple harmonious chant of 'She's the one for me'.

There is too much to write about each song, from the expansive folk-jam at the end of 'Dog's Got a Bone', to the hushed, acoustic harmonies that finish 'It's Over', even today, each song sounds different, original, and still as enjoyable as the first time you hear them.

See also: This article from Stereogum which lists the 10 Best Beta Band Songs