The Moors for Prog Folk |
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wiz_d_kidd
Forum Senior Member Joined: January 13 2018 Location: EllicottCityMD Status: Offline Points: 1368 |
Topic: The Moors for Prog Folk Posted: February 01 2018 at 10:51 |
The Moors are a two person band from Boston, with one self-titled release in 2004 (re-released in 2007). Their music can be categorized as prog folk, with heavy Celtic, pagan, and medieval influences. Their music contains beautiful, soaring vocals, driving percussion and bass lines, and virtuosic fretless guitar riffs to create lush, enchanting soundscapes over a prog backdrop.
The primary driving force behind the band is Sharynne MacLeod NicMhacha. She is a Celtic scholar, singer, musician, and author, trained in Celtic Studies at Harvard University. She is a direct descendant of Clan MacLeod, long recorded as having connections with the Fairy Folk. Her work focuses on preserving the indigenous shamanic wisdom of the Celtic world. Sharynne presents at colleges and teaching centers in Ireland, Scotland, and North America. Guitar wizardry is provided by Scott Dakota. Says Scott of his guitar work: "The songs were all arranged around live looping to build the layers and textures, and no keyboards, synths, or basses were used. Everything here is fretless guitar, tuned drum machine, and vocals. What functions as bass is the low range of the wide-range fretless guitar, which covers bass through guitar range. It's tuned low to high starting from Eb a half step below bass guitar low E, up in open 5ths. Eb Bb F C G D. The idea being, with careful part writing and some looping assist, I can cover most of the octaves needed for rock orchestration." Bandmembers: Sharynne MacLeod NicMhacha: Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Chanting, Flute, Tin Whistle (Irish Pennywhistle), Harp, Viol, Recorder (Tenor), Flute (Tibetan Wood), Viola, Bells, Percussion. Scott Dakota: Guitar (Wide-range Fretless, Self-modified), Effects, Viol (Bowed Two String Fretless), Percussion, Drum Programming, Backing Vocals, Overtone Voice, Tape Loops, Drone, Noises. Links: Official website: http://www.mobiusbandwidth.com/themoors.html Official music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yLcyPOHI6M Album and Samples: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/themoors Myspace: https://myspace.com/themoorsofficial/music/songs |
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GrafHaarschnitt
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 18 2017 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 248 |
Posted: February 04 2018 at 02:45 |
Why isnt there any ethno prog subgenre? Thats where i would put them at least for the song example. post rock? eclectic prog? crossover? a difficult one... ok listened another one... iŽd put them indo/raga prog because they have many ethnic influences especially from india and the music is almost always trance like.
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noni
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 03 2008 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1092 |
Posted: February 04 2018 at 03:34 |
Don't confuse me! I'm already lost with all these sub-genres!!!
Edited by noni - February 04 2018 at 03:34 |
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wiz_d_kidd
Forum Senior Member Joined: January 13 2018 Location: EllicottCityMD Status: Offline Points: 1368 |
Posted: February 04 2018 at 07:32 |
I would not put these guys into indo/raga because, despite some "trance-like" characteristics, they are clearly 100% Celtic, and it would be very insulting to the band to be misclassified as "proggy indian music".
So where do you put bands that have a clear ethnic influence? Oddly, PA put Azigza in Jazz/Rock fusion, which clearly (IMO) they are not! From their own web site... "Azigza is a unique group of musicians who have conjured an inspired musical style which blends sounds of Arabia, Africa, India, Bulgaria and other world music with the hard edge of rock n roll and the elegance of subtle classical colors." Another term they used to describe themselves (which I really like) was "World Fusion", which sounds a lot better than "Ethno-prog". Without creating another sub-genre, however, the right place appears to be Prog Folk, because it encompasses bands with Celtic influence. Genre classification is clearly a sticky wicket. It has been a goal of mine to dive into that morass now that I'm retired. But I'm afraid... very afraid! |
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omphaloskepsis
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 19 2011 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 6006 |
Posted: February 05 2018 at 01:15 |
Sounds intriguing. I'm looking for the next big Folk thing.
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator Prog Folk Joined: April 29 2004 Location: Heart of Europe Status: Offline Points: 19739 |
Posted: February 05 2018 at 04:11 |
Intriguing enough...
I'll propose it to the other team members... Will let you know.
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