Moon Palace— Desert Moonscape Music

About a year ago, in Seattle, five musicians searching for a voice found one. Thus began Moon Palace. But it is never as easy as that. The music scene is its own universe. Maybe the story is not as simple (or as contrived) as someone looking at Skip Spence and, not even considering whether he knew how to play an instrument, claiming him as a drummer, but for all I know it could have been just that easy because, like Jefferson Airplane, there could have been magic in the air. In this case, I prefer to think that the five individual bodies— Cat Biell (Vocals, Guitar), Carrie Biell (Vocals, Bass), Darcey Zoller (Cello), Jude Miqueli (Drums), and Bryn Santillan (Guitar, Trumpet, Vocals)— floated in space, drawn to one another through the simple act of magnetism. It sounds like it, or should I say it sounds like they belong together. Call it organic, for lack of a better word. It sounds very organic.

I might not even know about the band but for my cyberstalking the band’s bass player, Carrie. A number of years ago, she released an album titled When Your Feet Hits the Stars, which cold-cocked me a good one and still does. I spent a number of years searching for a later release which never came, but I would hear enough to let me know that she was still out there. Maybe not recording or playing out but alive. A few months ago she appeared out of nowhere and whispered of a new band, one she shared with her sister and three other musicians, and, wonder of wonders, there might be an album! I, of course, tucked it in my pocket, afraid I might jinx it, until the album became truth. Luckily, that was only a month or two on.

I don’t really know what I was expecting, especially as Carrie had repeatedly told me that this was not her band but a band she was in— a way of preparing my ears, I suppose. I understood when I finally heard the album. No feet hitting stars here, but there is something else. A string of Carrie’s twin sister Cat’s songs which could easily have been written about stars. Instead, it turns out they were based on Cat’s “desert dreams. They are songs inspired by vast landscapes, the invisible forces in the universe that affect us all, and how we relate to each other.” (taken from Moon Palace’s bandcamp page, where you can stream and/or purchase the self-titled album— click here)

Indeed, Cat Biell has turned her dreams into a musical landscape worth hearing, the songs dripping in reverb and constructed more like compositions than songs. The result is a soundtrack-like approach to a combination of space and light progressive rock which could be mistaken for shoegaze but is certainly not. There is no droning here, more a music drawn from some of the progressive bands of the mid-seventies, bands which spent their time outside looking in rather than the opposite.

I got it after a few listens, but it took the few. It always does when the sound is fresh and a bit different than I am used to. The cool thing is that as that music becomes more familiar, it seems to make more of an impact. The fifth listen was the breakthrough. All the way through with no interruptions and it all came together in my head as it was meant to be on record. Smooth with just enough of a kick to keep interest and songs sequenced perfectly. On an album like this, they have to be. One out of place and it jars you. Ask any musician. They can tell you.

Moon Palace is young, I realize, and I wonder where they will go from here. I don’t envision another desert musicscape, though I could be wrong. For one thing, I hear too much talent to repeat what they have already done (and done exceedingly well, I might add). They have the core to take their music anywhere. Following them is going to be fun. Not only that, it will be an adventure. Like this album. A first step but a hell of a first step.