Articles
2008 Ten Favourite Labels
Ten Questions Celer
Ten Questions Deadbeat
Albums
Anzio Green
Ariel Abshire
Osman Arabi
Arastoo & AEMAE
Asymmetrical Head
Benoît Pioulard
Bohren & der Club of Gore
Matt Borghi
Celer
Cubenx
Anders Dahl
Davis & Roux
Deadbeat
Feu Follet
Formication
Generic
Stefan Goldmann
Gultskra Artikler / Lanterns
Hauschka
Hexes & Ohs
Koen Holtkamp
I Am Robot And Proud
Illusion of Safety
Integral
Koen Park
Akira Kosemura
Koushik
Library Tapes
Lineland
Mamiffer
Melodium
Moon
Oppressed By The Line
Pillars and Tongues
Rumpistol
Kamran Sadeghi
Sans Serif
Signal Deluxe
Skogen
Saul Stokes
Matthew Sweet
Tapage
Thursday / Envy
Windy & Carl
Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail II
Chaos Restored 2
DFPRMX
Kuniyuki
Message Subatomic World
Pero es olor en el cuarto...
EPs
Canyons!
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Cubenx
Dokuro
Fraction
Lee Holman
Ikonika
King Midas Sound
Michael Lambright
Library Tapes
Lilienweiss
MRK1
:papercutz
Spencer Parker
Poratz
Spartak + John Chantler
Andy Vaz
Moon: Tales of Long Dead Ladies
Interregnum
Don't be deterred by the cryptic Tales of Long Dead Ladies title, and don't think Moon's album is a merciless blast of punishing noise either. Instead, it's a thirty-four-minute collection is moodscaping of a particularly strong vintage. The group's the brainchild of DDN who, on this recording, is ably assisted by singer Chandra Murray (words for three songs derive from poems by Emily Dickinson, Letitia E Landon, and Jennifer Jacobs—the first two filling the “long dead ladies” bill while the third is “still alive and dreaming”); born in 2000, Moon lists eight albums (on CDR and net labels) in its discography. DDN regards Moon as his adult tribute to the soundtracks of his childhood nightmares, one he characterizes as “Mahavishnu Orchestra remixed by Merzbow,” and his attempt at re-imagining what “the music of the future would sound like back in 1976,” when DDN was seven. In a distinctive move, bass guitar often assumes the lead instrumental role with Murray's vocals and rippling sheets of electronic and synthetic waves swelling alongside it (guitars, organ, and theremin also figure into Moon's music-making).
The seductive opener “My Life in Ruins,” a celestial cloud where bass guitar meditations drift through windswept atmospherics of electronics, synths, and the breathy sweep of Murray 's angelic voice, pulls the listener in immediately. In the folk traditional-styled meditation, “Shall I Ever Fall,” Murray 's intonation of Dickinson 's words (“Good-bye to the life I used to live / and the world I used to know”) echoes through a mass of guitar stratospherics until they eventually drown within it. Roasted guitars burn through the funereal “Dreams Dreaming” and nightmarish “Dream Monsters” (Sleep little gargoyle / Dreaming of worlds / Sleep ‘til the stars all make sense”) while phantom whispers murmur and electronic noises seethe. There's a somnambulant quality to Moon's music, as if the tracks are audio transcriptions made when DDN's asleep. The music drifts hazily in and out of focus, with voices and electronics ebbing and flowing throughout. Though Moon's sound is disorienting and mildly turbulent too, Tales of Long Dead Ladies nevertheless impresses for the subtle and nuanced handling of its material.November 2008