Moog

How do you pronounce it? The "Moo" in Moog, is it like "mow" the grass or is it "Moo" like a cow? I know a lot a people who say, "moo" but the dictionary says, "mow" like vogue or rogue. Then again there's a city in the Bay Area with my name and people can't even pronounce that right.

Robert Moog looks like the typical tech wiz you'd see haunting a trade show, but the man built one of the single most influential instruments of the twentieth century: the Moog synthesizer. In 1964, he created the first modular synthesizer with composer Herbert Deutsch. That was then was adapted into the 70's into the MiniMoog Model D (in 1971) and the Taurus bass pedal synthesizer (1974). A loyal following of musicians have used the instrument such as The Monkees, U2, The Police, Parliament, The Moody Blues, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, Rush and composers Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Hans Zimmer and Vangelis. Even modern bands such as including Beck, Air and Crystal Method still use it regularly since a modern computer can't uniquely capture its vintage character. If you don't think there's loyalty to the brand name, performing on the album is a group named Moog Cookbook.

In Moog, documentarian/musician Hans Fjellestad follows Robert Moog to his North Carolina workshop and finds a man who in his own words, "can feel what's going on in a piece of electronic equipment." The movie explores the artistry in which he created and builds these musical machines that have endured thirty years later.

It's comfortable to say if you don't like the sound of the Moog, you probably shouldn't pick this baby up. Though not advertised on the back cover, this is actually a 2 disc set. Add in that you're getting this for the price of a regular CD, it's a pretty good deal.

Disc one is a selection of new music produced by devotees which include Meat Beat Manifesto, Stereolab and Electric Skychurch (a personal favorite of mine). The best of these songs indulge in a retro trip, such as "Variation One," (a bouncy 60's pastiche), "Bob's Funk" (early 80's funk), "Endless Horizon" (late 80's electronica) or "Another Year Away", which would make Wendy Carlos proud. The weaker tracks which unfortunately dominate this disk are pretty good, but aren't particularly distinctive. The problem with a lot of these more modern sounding tracks is that they don't really emphasis the Moog (with the exception of "Beautiful Love", "You Moog Me" and "Micro Melodies"). Sure the Moog is there, but the artists seem to use it as a pretense to veer into other genres where the Moog's analog synth sound is diluted.

Luckily the second unadvertised second disk makes up for it with a collection of vintage Moog tunes. This includes classics such as Gary Numan "Cars" and I dare you to not start humming,

"here-in-my-car, I'm-the-safest-of-all." Also there's even a They Might be Giants cover of "Baroque Hoedown" from Disney's Electric Light Parade, "Lucky Man" and some songs from Devo and Yes. And let's not forget the greatest New Order song ever, "Blue Monday") Interesting point about one track: if you've heard the Fatboy Slim remix of "E.V.A.", the Jean-Jaques Perrey's original really hasn't aged a day.