“Nature never repeats itself. Why should I repeat myself?”
Moorebeck Stellar’s 2002 debut ‘A Blind Man’s Waltz’ received a positive review (7/10) in the pages of W&H, drawing comparisons with Nick Drake and The Flaming Lips but lodging itself firmly in the Alt/Country genre.
Knowledge of which makes the seismic shift in direction on their sophomore outing ‘Down-tight/In bloom’ all the more astonishing. The duo of Elliott Kozel and Andrew Jansen have ditched any notion of songs – with one notable exception – and have let their muse take them on a quite extraordinary journey into instrumental experimentation.
Musical reference points on this tour-de-force can be perceived but none of them ever take hold of the artistic reins. In fact their existence is often subliminal, like being awakened from a dream with only a hazy memory of its content or significance. A key factor in the blur effect is the predominant use of real instrumentation with which to generate sounds where one would normally expect a greater reliance on sampling and synthesizers. On that organic basis the album has parallels with the likes of Tortoise but many of the tracks display a closer affinity to Fourtet, Aphex Twin, or even F.S.O.L. Ultimately ‘Down-tight/In bloom’ shares a pioneering spirit with The Orb’s ‘Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld’: musically experimental but never unintelligible; abstractness made approachable by melody, multifarious ideas grounded by linearity, creativity channelled through holistic intent.
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‘Elevator (suddenly) takes flight’ is a suitable stopping-off point: '60s wurlitzer organ-driven psychedelia with a downtempo dub beat, bridged by scuttling banjo, eventually circumvented by arpeggio electric guitar with ‘scratch’ percussion. All that in 3 minutes and not once does it sound contrived or compressed. We’ll move on to ‘Jadis Queen’ which starts with sampled voice and slowly chilled dub that leads to the utterance of the words opening this review. Suddenly a scuzzy rock riff kicks in, prompting the track’s eventual break down to just beat and bubbling fade out. Then there’s the finality of the 17 minute trippiness that is ‘Moksha’: a piece in three interconnected tonal ambient movements that glide from Rock to Spiritual Eastern to Outer Space.
A natural point to end the album but instead Moorebeck Stellar offer one more surprise: a song, the suitably titled ‘The Humble Companion’. A low key acoustic mantra sung with the cracked vocalisation of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkhous, it somehow manages to encapsulate the essence of what has preceded it.
Written, played, recorded, produced and mixed by Kozel and Jansen this is truly exceptional collaborative work on every level.
www.moorebeckstellar.com
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