From the day his mam rented out her basement to the Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen for rehearsal space, it seemed David ‘Yorkie’ Palmer was destined for great things of a musical nature.
Since those innocent Post-Punk days he’s certainly stamped his mark on the Liverpool scene, featuring in respected local cult heroes like Egypt for Now, The Balcony and The Pale Fountains and later gaining international attention as part of Tommy Scott’s mega-selling Space.
Also featuring Mark Jordan, Alex Griffiths and former Top/ The Room guitarist Paul Cavanagh, MOONGOOSE is Yorkie’s new sonic venture and it was borne primarily out of a lifelong love of Krautrock legends Can, Tangerine Dream and Faust: influences which certainly seep through the skein of the restless soundscapes featured on the band’s 2010 debut EP ‘Silhouettes & Shadows reaction Music 1.’
The band’s new EP ‘Footprints’, though, is something of a step forward. While it’s difficult to deny the lead track ‘...By Train”s Kraftwerk-ian edge (all pulsing heartbeats, stripped back electronics and an inherently filmic feel) or the Tangerine Dream influence on the glacial synths of ‘Continental Drift”s opening couple of minutes, there’s plenty more going down here.
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Moongoose’s PR blurb suggests their ethos is to make electronica sound “accessible” and they achieve that aim here. While their primarily instrumental music has cinematic, machine-based leanings, rockier elements like the sinewy guitar lifting ‘Continental Drift’ and the mighty, neo-Zeppelin riffing launching ‘Organic Technology’ ensure the balance between technological precision and human intuition remains just so. The final track ‘Traveller, though, is perhaps the best thing here, with the low-key analogue beats and what sounds like a melodica giving way to a band-based groove with funky bass lunges from Yorkie and spacey guitars taking it into another galaxy altogether.
Available for download and as a limited edition CD from the Moongoose website, ‘Footprints’ leaves an intriguing trail for the open-minded Pop moodster to follow. Tracking it down really should be on your agenda.
Buy the limited edition CD of Footprints from the Moongoose website
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