Baboon Moon

No lyrics; no FCC issues. Song lengths on hard copy of review (physical cd).

1. Mercury Heart – Opens up with a long intro, consisting of sparse trumpeting over a bed of ambient synth sounds. The groove begins at 1:56, with a driving drum beat and echoed rock guitars. The track is heavy, with an 80’s feel. There is a dramatic breakdown at 3:12-4:01, and then the groove continues, until the end of a crescendo at 5:15, as the sounds diminish, and the song fades.

2. A Small Realm –Trumpet over spacey organ, accompanied by other synth sounds. Very mellow. Entire song sounds as if it could’ve been an intro.

3. Recoil – This is an up-tempo song, with a Depeche Mode type of groove. Nice guitar and drums. The only sign of jazz here is the trumpet, which has a notable presence, in the midst of the modern rock feel.

4. Bloodline – Slow, thoughtful groove, reminiscent of a Led Zeppellin track. Trumpet over subtle electronic percussion and ambient synths. Acoustic guitar beginning at 2:15 brings a good balance. Song fades with a steady, percussive time tick, from an unidentifiable electronic sound. Nice.

5. Sleep With Echoes – This track seems to live up to its name, as the electric guitars, combined with the echoed synthesizers, come equipped to rock the listener to sleep. Slow, steady groove.

6. Blue Fandango – Slow groove with a high pitched synthesized whistle, which is the highlight of this track. Trumpet comes in nicely, with subtle touches of authority.

7. Prince of Calm – Ambient synth meditations, all the way through. Nothing special here.

8. Coded - Song opens with electronic drum machinery, but the real groove comes from a brilliant live drum pattern, which steadily plays, at a slow tempo. The trumpet and synthesizers play their respective parts very well.

9. Baboon Moon – This song, which is also the name of the album, seems to summarize the mood. It’s a reflective piece, where the trumpet’s solemn monologue is backed by an array of synth sounds and guitars with various effects. The jungle feel comes from the drums, which embellish the thoughts that one may have from beholding the album cover.