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MOONRAKER
(Immergent Recordings)
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Although they now reside in Brooklyn, Moonraker got their start in Boston, where they won a 2003 Boston Music Award for Best New Band. This homonymous sophomore disc is a grab bag that brings together four new recordings, re-recorded versions of tracks from their debut CD, Nada Brahma, and material from their homonymous EP. The result is the very definition of eclectic, mixing laid-back, jazzy rhythms, laptop-IDM beats, and folky riffs reminiscent of (but never deriving from) everyone from Prince to Portishead, Björk to Erykah Badu. Berklee-educated vocalist Kelli Scarr mimics the sassy pouts of No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani in "Courageous World" and the uncompromising intensity of PJ Harvey in the slow-simmering rocker "Shalom." More often, though, she takes her cues from Ani DiFranco’s unorthodox intonation and Beat-poet delivery. In fact, the funky flow of songs like "These Walls" and "Can I Love" resembles the stripped-down minimalism of the Righteous Babe’s exuberant live shows, and the drum ’n’ bass–riddled "The Desert" and "So Sweet" whir with computerized energy that’s just as electrifying.
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