Album Review by Mark Bayross
Hailing from San Francisco, Moon Theory is the duo of producer/musician TSO and singer Kaeti O’Ghara who together explore similar electro-rock trip-hop territory to bands like Portishead, early Sneaker Pimps and Garbage.
With TSO’s deep beats given an organic – and occasionally Eastern – embellishment, and Kaeti’s haunting torch-song voice, often with more than a hint of Björk, this is stirring stuff. The riff-heavy opening of INSOMNIA does mislead slightly – this isn’t really rock-out music, more of a slow-burn through smouldering tracks like MOMENTARY, HUNGER and the string-enhanced PRIMEVAL.
Addressing subjects ranging from shamanic imagery and psycho-science (SHAPESHIFTER, for example) to their wholesale rejection of consumer fascism and media manipulation (the vocoder-heavy FEED YOUR MASTER), MOON THEORY is never far from engaging. Only the bizarrely incongruous anti-corporate skit BLASPHEMY spoils the flow and seems just a little too obvious.
In all, this is classy urban electronica fronted by a singer with a truly beguiling voice. Investigation is strongly recommended.
