Persona

Album review

Saying that Mokira's second full-length effort evidences a definite Spacemen 3 jones is an understatement -- songtitles like "Lord, Am I Going Down?" and "Oscillations and Tremolo" are telling enough, but calling one "Ode to the Ode to Street Hassle" doesn't so much tip a hat as kowtow, the familiar stately melody of the Lou Reed original seeming to arise from shrouded depths. But unlike any number of bands that have done their best to re-create the impact of the Rugby legends, Mokira (aka Andreas Tilliander) isn't out for that so much as finding his own way to exultance in sound via washes of drones and warm tones. If anything opening number "About Last Step and Scale" more suggests the darkly beautiful ambience of early-'90s Aphex Twin or Seefeel's drumless efforts than, say, Experimental Audio Research. Persona flows from that point forward as a unified piece where each song introduces new elements, such as the stuttering burbles on "Lord, Am I Going Down?" (Meanwhile, "Oscillations and Tremolo" perhaps appropriately proves to be the one full-on tribute to the work of Sonic Boom, the phased rise and fall over almost ten minutes of interwoven parts a glazed piece of electronic psychedelia.) The whole is quite entrancing; if there are now as many drone experimental releases in the world as there are labels big and small to release them, Mokira's great strength lies in his ability to make those new changes per song work against letting Persona simply become background music in a Satie/Eno sense.

© Ned Raggett /TiVo