The band Moon Letters from the United States present their third album with This dark Earth. They describe their music as psychedelic prog and after repeated listening, I can fully agree with that. There are six tracks on this fairly short album, including an epic of more than seventeen minutes. The other tracks vary in length from just over two minutes to more than six minutes. After studying the supplied information it became clear to me that we are not dealing with only standard instrumentation and to my horror I saw that even a trumpet is played. Guitarist Dave Webb is omnipresent and sometimes plays relaxed parts but more often his playing goes in all directions, from chaotic solos to heavy riffs. The vocals are provided by Michael Trew and his voice is fine as long as he doesn't force it, there is regular polyphonic singing and that sounds fine too. John Allday is the keyboardist and actually the same applies to him as to Webb, sometimes it is quiet and melodic but often also swirling and chaotic. It is he who occasionally picks up the trumpet and you have to love that, so to speak. The rhythm section consists of Kelly Mynes on drums and Mike Murphy on bass. The latter also takes care of additional vocals. The sometimes complicated music does demand a lot from the last two, but that is no problem at all. In the search for references I ended up with King Crimson, Frank Zappa and also a bit of Van der Graaf Generator but Moon Letters does have its own approach. So don't expect easy fare because a lot, really a lot is happening and sometimes too much for me. If you like music with a lot of melody and emotion that is challenging but not chaotic then the music of these Americans is probably not for you. Yes, it is psychedelic but with a sharp, harder edge. Lonely Moon is a different story though, this is a short instrumental song with plucking guitars, more of an intermezzo. The mix and production is typically American, smoothed out and almost too perfect. Every time Trew screams loudly, and he sometimes does that like in In The Catacombs, I miss some warmth and emotion in his voice. The technical level of play is very high and that is also necessary if you want to play this kind of music. You sometimes wonder if bands deliberately make complicated music to impress instead of putting the composition first. Opener Energy Of The Heart starts off fairly quietly but soon the guitar and keyboard tunes are swirling into your ears. Here Trew sometimes goes over the edge of what's pleasant by screaming. So fasten your seatbelts. Silver Dream is much quieter in that respect and despite the fact that after four minutes the pounding rhythm starts to build, it remains much easier to follow in terms of melody lines. Just when I start to feel somewhat comfortable, the trumpet passes by, but fortunately that doesn't last long. The end of this song is fine again and that makes this my favourite track on the album. Island Of Magic Mirrors initially resembles Yes, especially because of the choirs, and the alienated guitar solo has a certain Steve Howe feel. However, the melody is not easy to follow and gradually the comparison disappears. We haven't talked about the lyrics yet. As the title of the album suggests, it is not all very cheerful. Dealing with personal demons as well as overcoming setbacks seems to be the main theme. Yet there is also some feeling of overcoming all this, so there is hope. The already mentioned epic, Dawn Of The Winterbird consists of several parts and they are certainly not seamlessly welded together, there are some really clear stops. This makes the song very fragmentary and I always think that's a shame. Yet there are very nice pieces with that bit of emotion in Trew's voice that I didn't hear until then. Finally, there is something of a repeated theme and that leads to a great finale. If one, as a reviewer, could switch off your personal taste, AI could take over, but I don't think that's desirable. So if I'm honest, This Dark Earth doesn't do much for me but I realize very well that it can be a great album for many visitors of this site so if you like the references mentioned then you should definitely listen to this album. ***- Erik Fraanje (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
