Interview/Review: Moonwood - Desert Ghosts

Moonwood are a band I've long admired but never reviewed, but the vinyl release of their 'Desert Ghosts' album gives me the perfect excuse to do so, and as a double whammy, mainman Jakob Rehlinger spared some time to answer a few questions. Moonwood play an enticing mix of motorik driven kosmische, full on psychedelia, fuzzed out space rock with touches of the exotic and the folky. Their output has been formidable and a check of the bandcamp site is an ideal place to start. 'Desert Ghosts' is a prime example of the band's ability to mix and match styles, genres and structures to produce a coherent and just plain fantastic album. The album is split into two halves; on Side A they explore the deserts of the American West, blending fuzzy desert-rock, and space-aged surf with motorik rhythms. On Side B they fold space to reach the desert planet of Arrakis for the Saharan and Middle-Eastern inspired "Trans Arrakis Express" suite. As 'Dune' is one of my favourite ever novels, this held an additional draw for me....and they have done justice to my imaginings of Arrakis and it's sparse, arid environment.

'Trans Mojave Express' has a motorik rhythm that is hypnotic and insistent and is a track that is just made for driving. While it may have overtones of Kraftwerk with its rhythm and simple but effective synths, it has much more in the way of atmosphere; the wailing guitars give it a plaintive quality that may seem at odds with the upbeat tempo but actually help convey the sparseness of the titular desert. 'The Girl Who Waited' starts very spacey acid rock, the guitars sounding positively cosmic but when the vocals of Jacqueline Noire hit, the feel is transformed instantly into something completely different. The guitars still roam around the stratosphere but the track is imbued with an 'otherworldness'; lysergically ethereal. 'Pipeline Of Death' sees the band move into surf territory with Rehlinger channeling his inner Dick Dale; but this is no Jan or Dean, this is surf as if played by Neu! - the synths and motorik drums say kosmische, but the guitar says Man or Astroman!..and it works; a fantastic, urgent track. 'I'm Gonna Be Sick' is another track with the dreampop vocals of Noire, this time underpinned by some space rock guitar and more stellar synths. The overall effect is one of cosmic shoegaze. 'Bombshell Betty' brings the 'Earthbound desert rock' half to a close. Opening with a spoken word sample it is another acid rock track with more sublime guitar work, full of fuzz and wah-wah. There are some hushed vocals that give it another layer and more depth and texture.

"Trans Arrakis Express" suite kicks off with 'Ghola Dance'. It has an eastern vibe, initially sparse but exotic, reflecting beautifully the alien, barren imaginings of Frank Herbert. The ever-present motorik rhythm still provides the bedrock, leaving the clever instrumentation to provide the colour. 'God Is Silent' is a really beautiful track. The violin of Matthew Fava lends it an eastern motif, backed by some hazy synths but it is Noire's vocals once more that give it an alien, ghostly feel. 'On The Funeral Plain' continues the Arabesque musical theme, again the violin being the main contributor, but the guitar is the star; it meanders on a dreamy, psychedelic journey across the desert like the spiced-up Fremen from 'Dune'. 'The Worm Is Calling' is a soundtrack just waiting for a 'Dune' remake. Musically it has the tension and the suspended feeling of dread of a John Carpenter movie, and the treated vocals of Noire and the violin filter through surrounding it a psych-folk haze. 'To See The Light Without Knowing Darkness' closes the album and the second half suite. The eastern theme is continued, supplemented by some ethereal chant like vocals, and the guitar riffs on the theme providing some lush psych touches. It is the most abstract of the tracks, with no real structure per se but it ratchets up the atmosphere levels to a point where, if you close your eyes, it transports you to another, more exotic place.

'Desert Ghosts' is a pretty damned awesome album. The imaginative juxtaposition of the more earthly, and earthy, first half with the alien soundscapes of the second half make it one of the most interesting and creative albums I've heard for a while. The shapes and textures they form with instruments and vocals is admirable and the atmospheres created are sublime. The way the band can go from straight up motorik to hazy psych via the music of the bazaars is testament to the both the band's musicianship and their willingness to play with themes and motifs. A purely brilliant album.. It is out now on vinyl via Pleasence Records and as a download via the Aranchidiscs Bandcamp site.



So, who are Moonwood?

Moonwood currently is myself on guitar, Jacqueline Noire on synths and vocals, Matthew Fava on bass and occasional violin, and Luca Capone on drums.

I've seen the words 'krautrock' and 'kosmische' attached a great deal to your work....while there are definite motorik aspects, it seems to me that there's a lot more to your music.....is this a label you're happy with?

Well, you need to put down something for a genre tag, right? "Space Rock" is probably a better umbrella as our brand of psychedelia encompasses UK and American sounds and styles as well. But I actually think there's a general misconception about the term "Krautrock". The motorik rhythm was pretty much only used by Neu!, Harmonia and La Düsseldorf. A lot of Krautrock bands did stuff more in line with what we're doing. Or vice versa to be more accurate. But when people hear the term Krautrock, they think Neu! and Can and Kraftwerk. None of which we're really about so it isn't a great term for us in some ways. Also, we're not from Germany and it's not the early '70s so it's entirely disingenuous. We're a spacey, cosmic jam band. But people Google "krautrock" so that's why we use it.

The artwork of your releases is distinct....the 'planet/highway' (shades of Kraftwerk?) and the skull....is there a 'masterplan' behind this?

There's rhyme to the reason, but no reason to the rhyme, per se. The more motorik-influenced releases used the highway motif as an obvious Autobahn reference and the more folky improv-psych stuff—such as Forest Ghosts and River Ghosts—had some sort of skull design. I felt like Desert Ghosts combined these two approaches, so I combined the motifs. There's a vague idea to not use either motif anymore after this. But there's something to be said for consistent branding so we'll see. I think the skull will stay—I call him Skully—but probably not the Kraftwerk highway unless we do a very pointed return to that style.

Who does the artwork?

I do all the artwork.

Over the past year I've interviewed or reviewed a lot of great bands from Canada. It's not a country immediately connected with 'psychedelic' (although there were some fab 60s garage punk bands), but this is obviously changing....do you ever feel that you would have greater exposure if you were based in the US ?

Not really. We'd have greater exposure if we hired a PR company and an agent to book us into American or big Canadian festivals. That's the reality. Doesn't matter where you're from, really, just if you have a team working for you. I will say, however, that we mainly sell our music to Europe and a bit to the States. Canada is generally unaware we exist.

You also run a label, 'Arachnidiscs Recordings', which has an interesting and diverse roster....is there an over-riding ethos to the releases or just what tickles your fancy?

The motto and working philosophy is "Music For And By Weirdos". Ideally Arachnidiscs skews towards avant garde and experimental music. But ultimately it ends up being what I fancy, some of it not so weird—though I can attest the artists themselves are bonkers. Moving forward, I'm only working with Canadian acts, with a preference to people I already know personally and think aren't bad human beings. So that will narrow the focus somewhat. I'm not that interested in putting out music by young, straight, white, men anymore. Though that's the demographic who contacts me most so who knows what will happen.

'Desert Ghosts' has just had a vinyl re-issue via 'Pleasence Records' and looks ace! Am I right in thinking that this is only your second or third vinyl release? Any plans to retrospectively re-issue any on vinyl, especially as vinyl seems to be the format of choice amongst many music lovers?

That's actually the original pressing, not a re-issue. It's a joint release between Arachnidiscs and Pleasence. It's the second and probably last vinyl release I'll do. It was a nightmare with pressing plant delays and disasters. About 18 months from submitting the master files to the plant, two years from recording it. A disaster. I'm hoping vinyl goes out of vogue again soon. Its not sustainable. And from a personal perspective, as a music fan, I feel very few releases are worth $25 plus shipping. I generally buy CDs and cassettes if cassette is all that's available. I think CD is the best format created so far and I think it's a damn shame it's getting bullied out of the marketplace purely because of, as far as I can tell, the petty whims of fashion. They're cheap to produce, cheap to ship, and the format best suited to financial sustainability for a small, marginal, label. If anyone bought CDs, that is, which more and more they don't.

Are you a 'gigging' band? Is playing live an important part of Moonwood?

We play around Toronto semi-frequently just to legitimize our existence. We don't tour, or haven't. But playing live is also pretty important for a band like Moonwood. Usually 10-20 minutes of our set is an entirely improvised jam, including lyrics, so it's very much a live experience, a one-time deal. So very different than what a recorded artifact is. If we weren't playing live there'd be very little point for the band, in it's current state, to exist. We essentially asked Matt and Luca to join so that we could play live the kinds of things I wanted to put on record. Plus they're nice, sweet dudes.

Have you ever, or do you plan to, cross the pond to Europe?

Though we're much more popular in Europe, so in a way we should only play shows over there, I can't see how that'd ever be economically viable for us.



We touched upon the whole 'krautrock' thing earlier......what are your musical influences?

Personally, Klaus Schulze is a big influence. Him being a keyboard player and my role in Moonwood being guitar I'm not sure how evident that would be. More with my BABEL project, I guess. But Cosmic Jokers, who he played in, is pretty close to what I'd like to see Moonwood being. King Crimson is probably the band where Matt and Luca and I are most in agreement. Perhaps Floyd. They like Yes a lot more than I do. That is to say, they like Yes at all. Otherwise, it's all the obvious rote influences like Hawkwind and Guru Guru and Ash Ra Temple. My guitar style was somewhat subconsciously shaped from my teenage listening habits—Ry Cooder, Dick Dale, Steve and Mark from Mudhoney, Daniel Ash, and David Gilmour.

What's in the pipeline for Moonwood?

We have songs we've developed over the past year or so that we keep meaning to record. They actually have a bit more of a gothy post-punk feel, so we'll see how that works out. Probably an EP of some sort.

Right, standard tacky interview question: You're putting on a festival, which 3 artists (dead or alive) do you book to headline?

Since I won't be there, because festivals are horrible places for someone like myself with a well-developed social anxiety disorder to be, whoever will make me the most money. Kanye? U2? Since I can pick dead people, a Beatles reunion would probably rake in the most money. Heck, put The Doors on the bill too. And Hendrix. That'd pack them in like sardines and I'm glad I won't be there for that.