Black Moth Super Rainbow

Using old analog technology with voice vocoders and a consistent soothing nature, Start A People occupies the same territory as Air, but possibly more far out, and perhaps delivered with a friendlier execution. It could be psychedelia for the modern hippy. It could be a lot of things. In fact, for me, it's like how I imagine the soundtrack would be if Magic Roundabout The Movie was ever made. It has a 70's kids programme charm that lends a touch of familiarity throughout.

The songs have quaint titles like ‘I think it is beautiful that you are 25b colors too', ‘Early 70's Gymnastics', and ‘Folks with Magic Toes'. Pick out anyone and its not hard to feel enchanted, but listening to the whole album requires more patience. The tracks are all the same in vibe, if different in arrangement, and the first play may leave you baffled as to what the hell is going on. If robots were into music they would almost certainly name Black Moth Super Rainbow as one of their favourite bands (Kraftwerk would probably be their number one). But this is more than just a collection of bleeps, wobbles and beats.

‘Seeeds' is a glorious big landscape feel-goodness; ‘Trees and Colors and Wizards' steps up the pace and ‘I am the Alphabet' continues a more frantic delivery. ‘The 1 2 3 of Me' is an airy, light, mellow groove; and ‘Hazy Field People' is as calm and soothing as trickling water. Yet they all share the same wide-eyed, innocent enchantment. The Pittsburgh based electro-hippy-poppers close the album with the sneaky ‘Smile Heavy' which plods gently then opens out with a sudden burst of ecstatic euphoria.

At first I was sceptical, but now I'm hooked. I can't explain it but this album works. It crept up quietly, and now I'm going to blast it out incredibly loud. Glorious, other wordly and unusual but ultimately leaves you with a happy heart.