Mex - Dark of the Moon (1981)

Dark of the Moon is a stage play from the 1940s written by Howard Richardson and William Berney. I hadn't heard of it either, but it sounds distinctly gothic - in the sense of Edgar Allen Poe rather than black clothes and too much hairspray - set as it is in a rural Appalachian community, and telling the tale of a witch boy who wishes to become human, having fallen in love with a human girl. This CD is the soundtrack of a 1981 production composed by Paul Mex with Cliff Silver of Sad Lovers & Giants.

Dark of the Moon is instrumental and fairly minimal - so much so that I imagine it could have been performed live for the production without too much of a headache incurred. The sound comes from guitar, delay, and a couple of gas-powered monosynths, one of which sounds suspiciously like a Casio VL-Tone at certain points. More than anything it reminds me of some of the German stuff from the seventies, things involving Conny Plank and the like, Cluster and so on. Obviously I have no idea how well any of it would have worked in the context of the play, but it nevertheless makes for a fairly powerful CD in its own right. The disc comprises thirty or so fairly short pieces, nothing longer than a few minutes, and all heavily reliant upon the repetition and recurrence of certain themes. This being the year 2019, Dark of the Moon initially sounds fairly primitive, as I guess it is, but its presence makes itself felt with repeat plays, and one ceases to notice the technology as a very specific mood is summoned, one which might not have settled so heavily upon one's soul had it been sprung from a more digital source.

Yes, I did just refer to this music settling upon one's soul, which is because there's a lot of power here, possibly specifically because the thing is so minimal and hence so direct. It has none of the idle, noodling quality of Cluster, or whoever it is I'm thinking of here. I gather Dark of the Moon is produced as a freebie thrown in with orders of other material from Mex, which I suppose makes sense given it being quite unlike anything else I've heard from the man, but this shouldn't be taken as indicative of it representing some kind of also ran or even a booby prize. Had this been slapped onto inch-thick vinyl by one of those boutique labels, I'm sure someone or other at the Wire would have been wanking themselves silly over it by now.