Kangaroo Moon

@ The Marr's Bar, Worcester - 4/5/02

Described on their new album cover as 'Celtic inspired didgeridoo-driven trance dance', Kangaroo Moon got off to a hypnotic start with didgeridoo providing the droning backdrop for a longish instrumental appropriately called 'Between Two Worlds'. In fact, much of their set tonight was instrumental and incorporated many musical genres all cleverly interwoven - a sort of free-form musical experimentation of which 'Surfing With Dr. Morph' was a good example. It was a sort of Kraftwerk meets Rolf Harris, meets Pink Floyd, meets Kevin Ayers, meets Bob Marley, meets The Dubliners, meets Robert Wyatt - I'm sure you've got the picture. The band were, Mark Robson on synth, piano, whistles, didgeridoo and vocals, guitars and percussion by Jerry Bewley and Matt Ledgar on drums and percussion. Normally a four piece, Kangaroo Moon coped well without their bass player who seemed to have gone AWOL!!

The unusual mixture of styles kept the set fresh, interesting and hypnotically dream-like with clever guitar work which had everything from reggae chops to Floyd-like descriptive passages with soaring riffs and crashing chords. Drumming to die for had some people transfixed; an individualistic style of jazzy, off-beat and somehow off-the-wall rhythms kept the 'dream' alive. All of this behind some great keyboard work with synth providing that techno edge even behind the most traditional sounding passages.

With their subtle blendings of world music into a heavenly mixture of sounds and texture, Kangaroo Moon were a musical experience that I'll remember for a long time to come. All together this was a fascinating and original evening of music for the mind and body - a breath of fresh air.

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