The Mooninites - ACA Sessions (2004)

In my previous post I made mention of unfinished mooninites records. After I thought about that I checked and saw that I had on hand some of that material and it was ready to be uploaded. So here are four tracks of long improv synth jams the mooninites recorded at the now defunct Atlanta College of Art.

I've also been thinking that one of my failings as a blogger thus far has been that I don't adequately describe the albums I post, so as to further entice one to listen to them. So here goes.

This record is a collection of four long, free-form jams. The longest is twenty-one minutes and the shortest is eight minutes. Fans of the Black Dice, Fripp & Eno, and the crazier seventies Sun Ra records will find many of these sounds welcome. The sounds are mostly derived from vintage analog synthesizers, although digital keyboards, electric bass and guitar are present as well.

The music is performed live, collectively improvised by only three people, (myself, Travis Knowles and Zach Smola) but often times there are more sounds being heard than three people could normally produce. This effect is derived by having all of the instruments plugged in at all times, which made it easy for all of the players to move around the room and play multiple instruments at once.

Although the tracks are all longer than standard pop music length they are all very linear and frequently go through several movements in the course of a single piece. Sounds and instruments, some recognizable and others pure noise, appear and disappear seemingly at random, giving the music a very dynamic quality.

This record is, in many ways, one of my favorite things I have ever played on. The biggest reason for this is that the setting allowed for total improvisation, without the sonic sacrifices one often has to make when recording improvised music.

I think this record can be a very rewarding experience if it is given a fair chance.


Credits:

Played and produced by the Mooninites

mixed by Ben Collins

Zach Smola, Travis Knowles and Ben Collins played all of it and it is hard to distinguish who did what except on "part 6" where Zach played keys, Travis played bass and Ben played guitar.


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