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.