Short Reviews [Moon Men - 2020 - "Tales of the Space Pirates"]

A little thing like a pandemic is going to prevent Moon Men from keeping up their prodigious output, so towards the end of 2020 they released their fourth full-length album in as many years. Sgt. Cthulhu Moone (Jerry King), Eschaton Crater (Bret Hart), Major Dom Fook (Dave Newhouse) and Billzilla (Bill Jungwirth) show no sign at all of wanting to conform, and in this release have actually brought together elements of all their albums to date, along with some “vocals”. There is even one song, “Andy Had Gills (for Andy Gill)”, which sound somewhat commercial, heave forbid! But that is okay, even this one has some rather strange stuff going on which reminds us that the band have yet to go all soft on us. There is somewhat more repetition at times, but that is to allow the guys to have a musical framework on which to go off on tangents. Their use of brass instruments at times is almost TV-theme like in its harmony, and at others it is chaotic and bouncy, and they can more from restraint to chaos without pausing for breath, meaning the listener always has to be aware and paying attention otherwise it is quite easy to wonder how they got to one point from another, and some back tracking may need to be undertaken. Bill may be providing an underlying pattern in total keeping with the rest of the guys, or he may be going off on a totally different tangent, or he may be missing in action altogether, all of which adds to the freedom and fun within this. This is experimental music that is compelling, truly progressive as there is a refusal to sit within any sort of musical box and instead are challenging those listening to understand what is going on, and to follow these musicians in their quest to boldly go where no musician has gone before (or is that taking the space analogy too far?). In some ways this is the easiest of their albums to get inside, yet they are still taking a path less trodden, and for that I am incredibly grateful.