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Moscow Riley - Eat The Ammunition

Artist:	Moscow Riley
Title:	Eat The Ammunition
Label:	ProActive PROCD2011002
Length(s):	58 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	07/1998

Line up

Mark Starr - drums
John Kirby - guitars
Andy Forest - keyboards
Chris Dempsey - bass, vocals

Tracks

1)	Fluffy White Cloud	6.33
2)	Big Time Religion Kick	4.19
3)	Pictures Without Sound	4.19
4)	Work Experience	5.10
5)	White Tribes	5.43
6)	Psycho Mechanics	5.49
7)	I've Seen An Elephant Fly	6.24
8)	Dream On	4.40
9)	Bungeedik	3.57
10)	Aerial Nation	4.56
11)	Way Off Line	6.48

Summary

After the demise of a band, in this case Summer Indoors, sometimes the old members pop up after a while and in this case it is Chris Dempsey, playing the bass and singing the lead as he did in his old band.

The music

It seems the music to this album has been listened to various times during a car ride from one place to the other since all times are measured in this way. The music starts promising with nice drumming. Then the music takes a little too long to get under way, but the enthusiastic vocaldeformed chorus is very nice. Lot of things happening here in only six minutes. Big Time Religion Kick is again a rock song with a kind of Green Day ring to it. A little humour is involved and although the music is of course more varied than that of Green Day, there some of that spontaneity and we really do not care attitude. Pictures Without Sound is rathr modern track with plenty of variation (but like all music quite similar to Summer Indoors) and some nice touches on the vocal, making the music easier to take than Summer Indoors. But like S.I. it's mostly riffing here. The same holds for Work Experience, which like all the tracks right here have lyrics that seem to be meant to be read full of observations of society and life, being rather critical. The music on this track also has some psychedelic influences and a pianic intermezzo. White Tribes is the first ballad with a very nice vocal melody. Psycho Mechanics is another typical example of Moscow Riley, with this time a rather strange guitarsound, like the strings are elastic and the tones reverberate in some way. And it works. I've Seen An Elephant Fly is of course no way to title a song and the song is not very good either. A bit trite with shrill harmony vocals. The intro to the next one, Dream On, is a lot better, but the vocal melody is not appealing enough. The subject of the song is one I can relate to. It seems that men often think they can do anything, become no. 1 tennisplayer or whatever as long as they put themselves to it (which only a few of coruse really do). Bungeeduk has the quirky intro you might expect with such a title. The keyboardsounds are close to obscene. Thinks are looking up again with Aerial Nation, which enjoys a nice chorus (notably the first) and a nice keyboard solo as well. The shop closes with Way Off Line. A nice trakc in the style in the style described earlier. Some really parts on the keyboards here.

Conclusion

Like Summer Indoors, and through this referring to It Bites (which was pop mostly), the music of Moscow Riley is energetic all the way, so do not look here for a variety in style, since its riffing throughout, with most of the nice melodies coming from the keyboards and the vocal melodies of Dempsey. The sound is a little more modern than you might expect, but certainly not straightforwrad with plenty of signature changes and breaks. This all gives the music a freshness, but there's unfortunately also a sameness to the music, making for the dip just after the middle of this album. Still, melodies and compositions are generally above average so I can certainly advise people interested in the more songdirected side of progressive to take a listen. Not being a real fan of this side of progressive I hope a little more variety in style will show on the next album.