Review of Moogfest 2006 Live

Introduction

Bob Moog is the father of synthesisers, the inventor of the Minimoog and more recently the Voyager. Describing himself as an engineer, Moog`s synthesisers have quite literally changed the face of music. It started earlier than that though, when Moog created his first company in 1959 to sell theremin`s in kit form. The theremin, a 1909 invention by Russian inventor Léon Theremin, has stayed the musical course through the Beach Boys down to Goldfrapp.

It was, though, the release of the Minimoog that captured the imagination of artists, especially after Wendy Carlos (then Walter…) released the multi-million selling Switched-On Bach. Suddenly through these electronic interpretations of classical music, musicians and ordinary people alike were marvelling at this strange and compelling new sound. Early converts were Pete Townsend, Kraftwerk, Rick Wakeman and The Beatles. The list is endless, but the Minimoog transcended all genres of music from jazz to rock.

In 1977 history was made using the Minimoog by Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer who teamed up for seminal dance classic I Feel Love, seemingly the first song to have a completely electronic score. This eventually inspired every man and his hopeless mate to do the same thing during the 80`s, except they`d all moved on to the Yamaha DX-7 at this point. Bob Moog had been ousted from the top ranks of Moog as well, only finally getting the rights to Moog back in 2002 - the same year that the Voyager made it`s grand entrance.

Sadly Bob passed away in 2005, but his legacy lives on through music. Moogfest is an event held annually at New York`s BB King Blues Club and the 2006 live show included performances from Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Roger O`Donnell (The Cure), Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic) with DJ Logic, The Mahavishnu Project, Jan Hammer and Keith Emerson (Emerson Lake & Palmer).

Video

The picture is OK but not great, part of that is almost certainly down to the lighting rig in this club.

Audio

Choice between Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo soundtracks, the surround track is particularly clear and loud…

Features

None…

Conclusion

I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed with this release, but I also had huge expectations that were probably not going to be fulfilled. I love synthesisers, but most notably those used during the 80`s which weren`t Minimoogs. Minimoogs have a history behind them and as stated previously transcend all genres of music, so a love of synthpop as such was always likely to be unfulfilled here. And it was.

It`s not that any of the performances are bad, just that they felt more like freeform jazz or prog-rock than anything recognisable as a song structured piece of music. All the main players are clearly talented but I just hated the jazz-lite backing provided. The only performers who came close to doing anything for me were Roger O`Donnell and Jan Hammer, although it was a bit of a treat to see Keith Emerson in full flow and playing what can only be described as patch chord central. Someone needs to tell Jordan Rudess that he doesn`t have to try to fit in 15 million notes every 20 seconds either.

The 142 minute running time is clearly good value for someone who likes this kind of musical style, it`s just not my thing. This could really have done with a short documentary on Bob Moog or some segments on the seminars run at each event, would have made this a bit more interesting. A bit wasted on me, but decent enough for muso`s or synth geeks I reckon…