Mr. Moods – The Strings of Life
Where to begin? Christian Denis (aka Mr. Moods) is yet another netlabel heavy-hitter with a great backlog of beats to his name. For those not awfully familiar with his work, browsing Bandcamp would be a good place to start. His latest releases are singles, “Existence” and “Some Other Time,” the latter featuring a vocalist who goes by the moniker MarLikNun. For this review, I’d like to focus on his latest full-length album, titled The Strings of Life.
Mr. Moods’ music is, well, moody… pensive, meditative. His influences aren’t hard to pin down: one can definitely hear nods to DJ Shadow or Krush, and his compositions are very consistent. In fact, maybe they’re a bit too consistent… track 11, “Trapped,” leaves me feeling just that. By the time I’ve gone mid way through the album, the arrangements become overly-predictable, leaving me feeling as though I’m listening to a chopped-up DJ mix instead of an 18-song LP. However, when I’ve reached “Istanbul,” I’m back in the groove again and carried through to the end quite nicely. What might make this album more interesting would be a decision to either make it shorter, cutting out some of the more redundant bits, or present it as a continuous composition, like a “live” mix focusing on the more unique sounds or arrangements overall. Nevertheless, The Strings of Life, as well as a great deal of Mr. Moods’ music, is very well put together and recommended listening.
For those who prefer more traditional netlabel audio, check out his releases on Dusted Wax Kingdom, here as Prototype 68 and here as Mr. Moods (among other releases).
Link to Release Page: The Strings of Life, by Mr. Moods
Mr. Moods - The Strings of Life,
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