Mooon's Brew. Mooon

And yet another album from Dutch soil that sounds like its 1966 and early 1967, before Indian influences passing for psychedelia and LSD slipped into music. What is the attraction of youngsters in 2017 with music their grandparents danced to or spaced out at? I don't know. Another fair question is why do I like most of these records so much? The state of Nederbeat is as good as it ever was. All we need is a new Mariska Veres and we'll score another hit Stateside soon.

Aarle-Rixtel is the birthplace of Mooon. Hidden somewhere in the east of Noord Brabant the band members honed their skills, playing records of their grandparents filled with the music of The Outsiders, Cream, Q65, etc. and out came Mooon's Brew, a fine collection of antiquated tunes played with zest and truckload of confidence..

That the influences do not limit themselves to the great Dutch bands of the mid 60s is shown by naming Cream. The very first song, 'Too Cool For School' shows another influence. The swamprock rhythm guitar of Tony Joe White mixes with a more straightforward sound. Extremely cool indeed. A fairly simple song that is punked up with a Wally Tax like sneer and a rough sounding solo guitar.

Mooon likes a lot of guitar music from the 60s and early 70s. Garagerock mixes just as easily with pumped up bluesrock ZZ Top and Rory Gallagher style. Psychedelia with blues Cream style. In other words a lot of music comes by that involves some strong distorted guitar playing, a firm bass and a strong drum. What the threesome, Tom de Jong, Gijs de Jong en Timo van Lierop, play and sing is what the listener gets. Don't expect loads of overdubs here. Don't expect a sound blown up beyond proportions. Mooon is Mooon.

So after a psychedelic pop song with some nice harmonies called 'Surfin' With You', a nice bluesrocker, 'Trouble', with a fiery harmonica is served up, in which the band is not afraid to go all out for nearly six minutes. 'Where Money Goes' is one of those punky garage rock styled songs, where a whole genre was built upon: punk.

Despite the fact that there are so many 60s oriented bands in this country, again this one sounds differently. Mooon does not let itself be caught in one sub genre, but goes for many. In general it plays rock fast, loud and proud, but never out of control. Mooon knows what it is doing, but is never afraid to take a little detour. And so hardly any song sounds the same. Not unlike 'Swerve On' by Mojo Monkeys, reviewed tomorrow on this blog, with the difference that that band plays a bunch of Americana styles on one record.

With 'Intermission' the band does a The Kik like interlude. Does Dave von Raven have a role again as producer here? Also songs like the single 'Mary You Wanna' and the surf rocker 'Shark Zone' give me the feeling. I gave up googling to find out. Nothing showed up. The more spaced out side of the band ends it all. Psych blues and a space jam.

Looked at from a superficial level Mooon's Brew is nothing more than a fallen over discography, that got mixed up and confused. Listened at more closely I hear a trio that is passionately playing the music it truly likes. Music that is about 50 years old today. At the same time it seems so easy to add new and great songs in these styles to the existing whole. There's nothing strange about Mooon's Brew, so psych and rock on Mooon.

Wo.

You can listen to 'Mary You Wanna' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC7YS70yZdM

You can buy Mooon's Brew here:

https://shop.excelsior-recordings.com/collections/2017-releases/products/mooon-mooons-brew