Harold Budd Simon Raymonde Robin Guthrie - Moon Melodies (8 tracks) +Album Reviews

Heaven versus earth

loteq | Regensburg | 07/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although this album is not really a successful collaboration - there are five tracks which are in the Cocteau's vein and three which resemble Budd's mid-'80s work - the pure beauty and consistency of the music here is impressive. The music takes a rather subdued path, but a few songs are among the best either artist has ever done. The first fifteen seconds of "Sea, swallow me" are awesome: Budd's wonderful piano theme suddenly crashes into a mighty wall of sound, made of ringing guitar chords, nautical bass lines, and slow-motion drums. The spacy, peacefully floating "She will.." features a saxophone solo by Dif Juz's Richard Thomas, and "Ooze out.." slowly builds intensity before a furious finale. Some people will probably balk at the more dissonant "Memory gongs" (this track also appears on Budd's "Lovely thunder" album, it's called "Flowered knife shadows" there) and the meandering, improvised "The ghost..", but these pieces work best as background music, anyway. "Why do you love me?" with its pearling piano runs and lurking guitar feedback is another stand-out track here. This album was one of my favorites for many years and still sounds timeless. Essential for fans of dream pop."

Immersed in flowing crystalline midnight

William Timothy Lukeman | 06/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a gorgeous fusion of evocative, dreamy sound, courtesy of Harold Budd & the Cocteau Twins, whose styles mesh as if made for each other. The music conjures ghosts, memories, winter stars, whispers of frost ... and yet there's a floating, detached warmth to it all, as well. It's the sound of crushed diamonds, languid chimes of ice, hushed thunder, blind white birds silently circling under the polar night skies ... it's a tangible chill that paradoxically nestles & soothes the listener, without ever becoming pointless New Age noodling. Absolutely perfect for introspection, reflection, drifting ..."

Harold Budd's flowered knife

olofpalme63 | auf der flucht! | 10/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
I'm not as inclined to call this 1986 4AD release a "Cocteau Twins" recording. Although released the same year as Harold Budd's classic Lovely Thunder, for obvious reasons (Liz Fraser's vocal) The Moon And The Melodies was probably better remembered for being more radio friendly than Budd's commercial sounding "Thunder". Strange in that (being a huge Budd fan), I never purchased this recording until I saw the Cocteau Twins 1993 "Evangeline" video and noticed a distinct "Budd" characteristic about the sound I was hearing from my television set. Dark and lush shimmering textures with Budd's trademark icy sparse piano, The Moon And The Melodies is perhaps the pure definition of the "shoe gazer" pop that defined the decade of the 80's. This will most certainly turn Budd fans into Cocteau Twins fans...and vice versa.

olofpalme63"

Cocteau Twins And A Piano Player

Master Gryphon | 02/17/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I was a kid there was this really weird segment (you can't call it a sketch, since that's more like what you see on Saturday Night Live, but segment sounds a little bit like part of a worm...not what I mean) on Sesame Street where it looked like you were walking through a kind of dark house as viewed from the inside of a fishbowl. This album sounds like that.

I mean it sounds like the guy has water in his piano, and the Cocteau Twins are there too, egging him on."

A Cocteau Twins album where Robin Guthrie explores his two s

Christopher Culver | 10/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In 1986 the three members of Cocteau Twins -- singer Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Simon Raymonde -- collaborated with ambient pianist Harold Budd in this record called THE MOON AND THE MELODIES. Originally released under the artist name "Budd, Fraser, Guthrie, Raymonde", it nowadays tends to get lumped in with other Cocteau Twins releases, poor Harold Budd. Nonetheless, the album is indeed sure to appeal to fans of the Cocteau Twin's other albums of the period.

The material falls into two groups, tracks which include Fraser's vocals and percussion like the Cocteau Twins' other work, and ambient instrumentals for the stringed instruments and piano. To the first group belongs "Sea, Swallow Me", "Eyes are Mosaics", "She Will Destroy You", and "Ooze Out and Away, Onehow". (The last starts off quiet and ends with a bang like most great CT album closers.) These are more similar to the preceding Cocteau Twins release, especially the EPs "Tiny Dynamite" and "Echoes in a Shallow Bay", than they are to the following CT album BLUE BELL KNOLL where Guthrie's playing suffered from substance abuse and sequencers came to play a large role.

The ambient tracks are "Memory Gongs", "Why Do You Love Me?", and "The Ghost Has No Home." Budd's contribution did not come as much of a surprise for me, for Budd and Guthrie have a similar aesthetic and the instrumentals here are reminiscent of Guthrie's solo albums. Having not heard Budd's solo work, however, I have no idea how Budd fans might react to this album.

As a Cocteau Twins fan I find this to be as important a release as anything they released under their own name."

Search - Harold Budd, Simon Raymonde, Robin Guthrie :: Moon & Melodies

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