THE MOORS REVIEWS

The Dark Symphonies label on which a.o. Autumn Tears release their albums has started a sublabel dedicated to ethereal music: Forrest of the Fae. The first release is from the Boston based Celtic / neo-mediaeval outfit The Moors. This release actually is a re-release, since it has already been released in the late ?90s as well. It is however fully justified that this debut recording of The Moors again finds it?s way to an audience since it is musically of a very high quality what the duo Sharynne MacLeod NicMhacha (vocals and percussion) and Scott Dakota (guitar, loops and electronic treatments) present us here. The sound consists mostly of heavenly voices music with a pagan and mediaeval feel and Celtic themes. The atmosphere very much resembles a mixture between Hagalaz Runedance and Dead Can Dance and is created by means of hypnotising guitar play, drones, percussion, flutes and extraordinary beautiful singing. Partly the lyrics are sung in Gaelic. This is not surprising when you realize that Sharynne is an expert in the field of the Celtic language and heritage. The music of The Moors manages to hypnotize the listener and take him to ancient times, to a world filled with mysteries where time has no meaning. This release might as well be considered a classic and a milestone in the mediaeval and Celtic heavenly voices genre.

9/10

TekNoir - October 2007


Highland Webzine

The very first release on Dark Symphonies' brand new Celtic/Folk/Faerie music oriented side label Forest Of The Fae, "The Moors" by the U.S. band of the same name, has managed to capture this reviewer's imagination and not let it go. This is one of those rare releases that is so involving, so encompassing and full of such a myriad of topics and ideas that even after five or six listens, I still have you to grasp fully what is going on within the hidden relams of this wonderful music.

At its heart, the music The Moors have come up with for their self-titled album can simply be described as gothic and trance influenced Celtic Medieval Folk Music similar to Hagalaz' Runedance's more synth oriented material crossed with the music of Andrea Haugen's other band Nebelhexe. But alas, simply categorizing it as such doesn't even scratch the surface of the many elements you will find within the 73 plus minute running time of the album. One of the first things you'll notice right away is the ethereal sounding synthesizer. The synth is actually a large part of the band's music, and it's this that gives the album its trance sound. I'm not usually a fan of music with a lot of synth because it usually modernizes the music too much for me, especially Folk/Medieval music like this. Don't let this scare you away though, the synth is just one of many aspects of this album, and they are done so well that you will be glad they are there.

The Folk and Medieval sound is just as prevalent, if not more-so, than the trance-inducing synth parts. While mostly Celtic and European in flavor, the album also has other styles of Folk music from many different areas of the world which really gives this admittedly long album a much needed change of pace every once in a while. To show how worldly and varied the music on "The Moors" is, I feel I must let you know what traditional instruments the band used during the recording of the album. Here goes: flute, Irish pennywhistle, harp, viola, tenor recorder, Tibetan wood flute, viol, bells (temple bells, fairy bells, Indian bells) and chimes.

And hell, even with that long list, I'm sure I'm still missing some instruments there. Not only that, one of the cooler aspects of the album are the items found in nature like oak leaves, acorns, apple leaves, pine cones and branches that they used for percussion and other sound effects that are layered along with the overt tribal/war drum style of percussion the album has. It's yet one more element (literally!) that adds to the overall woodsy and natural focus of the album. There are some fretless bass and electric guitar parts, but they are used more for effect much like the loops and sampling and don't give the album a Metal sound at all.

The lyrics are as varied as the music is, if not more-so. Most of the lyrics revolve around nature, world mythology, druids, fairy tales and a bit of history. Female vocalist and lyricist Sharynne McLeod is a high priestess of some sort of witch group, so some of the lyrics also are invocations of various nature. Honestly, so much is going on here lyric-wise that I find myself trying as hard as I can to decipher it all, but ultimately I fail. And that's a good thing, because it means I won't grow bored of the album any time soon.

Sharynne is quite talented and has a beautiful voice. Sometimes she has a Folky clean vocal style, other times she's chanting, other times she takes a narrative approach. Most of the lyrics are in English, but you'll also find lyrics in French, Bulgarian, Gaelic and Latin as well.

The production is top notch, which is good for this style of music. With this many different instruments represented on the album, it is imperative that each one comes through well without overpowering anything else, and this is thankfully the case with "The Moors".

You also couldn't ask for better a better packaging and layout for the album. Artist Cynthia von Buhler not only created the cover, but also created artwork that acts as a visual representation for each and every song on the album. Her artwork is very unique in that she mixes her painting with real world items like branches, twigs, flowers, dead insects, tree bark, pine cones and more. It's one of the more distinct art styles I've seen in a while, and I'm glad there's a ton of it inside the lyric booklet.

Speaking of the lyric booklet, all of the lyrics for each song are printed within, and each song that is not in English has English interpretations. Not only that, Sharynne also wrote a lengthy synopsis for each song, going even deeper into depth about each song's subject matter than the lyrics do.

Well, what can I say? "The Moors" is one of the most ambitious albums I have ever heard, and anyone into Folk, Medieval/Renaissance music that's looking for something more involving and out of the ordinary should definitely pick this album up. The band is obviously talented, as I read that Sharynne has studied the subject matters found in these songs for a long time not only here in the U.S., but also all over the world. And Scott Dakota also seems extremely multi-talented as well. The combination of these two talented individuals cannot be denied as evidenced on this album, and I hope to hear more form them and The Moors in the near future.

6.5/7.0

Britton Dicks - October 2007


Heathen Harvist

Originally released in nineteen ninety-eight on the now defunct Castle Von Buhler label, which is when I first came across them, what struck me at first was the artwork , beautifully crafted by Cynthia Von Buhler whose work has appeared in such diverse publications as Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, Newsweek and the Washington Post. Luckily my interest in the CD didn?t rest solely with the artwork, when I fist listened to it I was blown away and thought it was a work of sheer brilliance, and those feelings have remained to this day.

The Moors are Scott Dakota, and Sharynne Macleod NicMhacha; musically many genres are explored on this CD blended seamlessly into a mix of gothic, ambient, rock, ethereal, and all the while intimately linked to traditional Celtic and tribal elements. The lyrical themes of their music are exclusively Celtic (or, more precisely, Gaelic), and a good portion of the songs are sung or chanted in Scottish Gaelic. This is not at all surprising in the least as singer/lyricist/multi-instrumentalist Sharynne NicMhacha has studied the language and worked with the Celtic Department at Harvard.

She has drawn from her ancestral memory to produce the mix of songs found on the Moors? debut disc. Assisting her is rhythm programmer, producer of sonic sculpture, and guitarist extraordinaire Scott Dakota, who has woven ambient loops, tribal drums, and Eastern riffs around NicMhaca's haunting vocals. Apart from being involved with The Moors, and designing and constructing his own instruments, wide-range fretless guitar and bowed two-string fretless viola are two prime examples. Scott has under his belt many production credits, two of which include such artists as Garvy J aka, Josh Hager. (formerly of the semi cult bands "The Elevator Drops" and "The Rentals) and along with Garvy J produced, and composed the "Goddess" single by the mysterious chanteuse, Sophia Corbeau, which can be heard at Scott Dakota's Myspace site, I was reminded of Bel Canto upon first listen (post Geir Jenssen) from their ethereal nineteen nine-two release "Shimmering Warm and Bright".

Another project of note by Scott Dakota and Garvy J is ambient project Hidreamwave utilizing brainwave technology and sacred geometry musical experiments to alter one's consciousness using sound. Sharynne has continued to perform musically most recently with the band Trouz Bras, who combine traditional Breton dance tunes with a rocking rhythm section, complete with bagpipes and fiddle. In addition, on the literary side has written a book called Queen of the Night: The Celtic Moon Goddess in Our Lives, offering an illuminating and in-depth exploration of the role the moon has played in the religion, folklore, and mythology of Ireland and the British isles.

Paddy - December 2007