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The Moon Beasts are Alexandre Cohen (that's Ephedra) and Jerome Lesterps (a.k.a Proxeeus). The name is goth cheese (presuming "moon beasts" are werewolf type creatures), the cover is unexceptional (though the colour combination is appealing), the music seems pretty straightforward Goa... Not much good then? Well, Moon Beasts pull a rabbit out of the moon with some innovative melodies and a good melodic sensibility, make that a crazy good melodic sensibility. On some of the tracks, they take the usual whirling Goa melodies and blow them up. They cram extra melodies in, they pitchbend, they use clashing keys, they warp and twist them in some way. One way or another, or several all at once, Moon Beasts are going to have fun with those melodies. There are a number of examples throughout the record, but take the maddening mosquito melody at 7.44 in "Sleeplessness" for instance - that is some skull penetrating, irritation arousing, skin piercing nasty sound to make a melody with, but Moon Beasts do it. Sleepless indeed. The vaporous ethereal melody in "Separate Species" seems breathily beautiful, until the 303 kicks in at the end and turns the track so intense it is almost ugly. The beasts are not a separate species; we are the beasts. The haunting three note melody that is the lead of "Demon Star" (wonderfully Lovecraftian name for a track) is worthy of any of the classics of Goa trance from the 90s. Weaknesses? Well, one might say that Moon Beasts pay so much attention to the melodies that they tend to ignore the rhythms a bit and they might have put more work into varied drum and bass patterns, but this is not a glaring weakness in the album. Tired of no melodies or the same old melodies? If you fancy the idea of some lunatic reanimation of Goa melodies then take a peek round into the dark side of the moon and go and join the Beasts. This crazy melodic sensibility seems set to blow up on their upcoming album. There's a preview track "Real Externality" that demonstrates a particularly intense messing with melody. It is also available as a white vinyl preorder here: https://moonbeasts.bandcamp.com/album/unexpected-turn-of-events Neo-Goa on white vinyl? Hell yeah - support the artists! ~*~

Oh Tsotsi, I was so into your hypnotizing nonsense, that I wasn't aware you were actually reviewing the album track by track. Your outfit screams "GOA TRANCE" btw Hope the wine was good and the headache wasn't too bad the day after. No really, I loved it!! Keep em coming. This is a mega album.

So...after being nothing short of mesmerized by Aleah's posthumously released solo album this year, I then discovered she also was the vocalist for the Finnish/Swedish band Trees Of Eternity. Dark, beautiful, tragic, haunting, and a dozen related adjctives of praise for this album https://treesofeternity.bandcamp.com/album/hour-of-the-nightingale