BAND OF THE WEEK: ELECTRIC MOON

Most of us will never make or survive a trip to the moon. Taking a trip with Electric Moon may be enough of a substitute.

And while there’s no shortage of connections in our mind between moon and music and muse and meditation and the mind-blowing and more, when it comes to the Electric Moon, we fall under a wordless spell.

Not long ago, we became convinced of the infallible truth that the end of the world would be upon us momentarily – ultimately, we realized we had simply been listening to “The Doomsday Machine” by Electric Moon for days on end. Such is the gravitational pull of the band’s music – absolutely insane, irresistible columns of marching, mountain-moving, heavily distorted soundwaves built for space exploration.

But the wordless spell meant that we invariably failed whenever attempting to describe the power and thrill of “The Doomsday Machine.” Here’s the thing: You’re either the type of person who’s in for the prospect of a musical moon mission that starts with the nineteen and a half-minute throbbing, acid-fried-amplifier-thrust that is the opening, title-track of “The Doomsday Machine,” or … you are not. Which ever side of the moon you find yourself on, we’re glad you’re here – but there’s nothing we can possibly express through words to alter your lunar positioning.

We feel comfortable declaring that the music of Electric Moon shines solely for those freaks who wanna get free, who wanna ride those soundwaves perched high atop the silver machines of their minds, sweating through silver-painted faces, prepared to put their helmets on, kneeling before the altar of the sky, and dreaming the dreams of the chosen sons and daughters of space snakes that rule the stars …

… or perhaps more comfortably, we declare Electric Moon to play awesome, concession-free kosmische rock.

Appropriate, then, to see the light of the Electric Moon shining bright among the absolutely planet-smashing line-up of “Head Music,” the latest collection from the unassailable, unstoppable mission of Fruits De Mer Records to make the wildest daydreams of every psychedelic-psyoul and kosmische-kranium come true.

Download “Madrigal Meridian” (Tangerine Dream cover) by ELECTRIC MOON

Electric Moon do their part by fulfilling that most persistent and patient of dreams, the dream of Tangerine Dream, a dream long held in high regard by these apes. Paying tribute to pioneers like Tangerine Dream can be risky business, but then fortune favors the bold – and the ears of anyone listening to the Tangerine Dream’s “Madrigal Meridian” drawn down by the Electric Moon will be fortunate ears indeed. Given the propensity of Electric Moon to ignore the calls of gravity (their 51-minute “Inferno” being the chief example) and the efforts of Tangerine Dream to prove for all that time is merely a construct of our minds (their 1972 album “Zeit” being the chief example), we were shocked to find the “Madrigal Meridian” turned in by Electric Moon on “Head Music,” at five minutes and five seconds, to be perhaps the shortest song in their growing repertoire. In this Dream state, however, we find Electric Moon more controlled and cathartic than ever before – though their moonlight no less cutting.

“Head Music” will surely continue to feed our head for many, many moons to come – the menu also featuring heavy, heroic, honorifics from Vibravoid, The Bevis Frond and fellow “Band of the Week” victim, the simian-space-soldiers that comprise Dead Sea Apes, sinking their kollective teeth into a cut from Kraftwerk.

We’ll surely have more to say about “Head Music,” the fruits of Fruits De Mer, and our love of the kosmische in the weeks and months to come. For the time being, however, we’ll remain until the spell of Electric Moon – its weightless freedom, its imaginary light and its dark mysteries.

“There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon …
Seek not the paths of the ancients;
Seek that which the ancients sought.” – Matsuo Basho