In their own words Transglobal Underground said that "the price of innovation is often a trail of s h i t e left in your wake". Such an insightful comment begs you to question the value we place upon innovation in music and in turn challenges you to appreciate and respect the musical boundary pushers. But I am not so sure if any boundaries are being pushed with Moonshout.
This is another varied mix of influences ranging from very slow Indian influenced ambient instrumental to very dated drum & bass styled production with a variety of languages in vocals, spoken word and emceeing in effect.
Unfortunately, like an abandoned POW with an ecstasy hangover, it feels as if TGU have been stuck in a musical timewarp unable to break past their early trippy ravey sound. At their best on this LP, they convey a form of infectious happy exuberance, but at their worst - which is for the most of this release - they replay their previous approach of awkwardly placing completely incongruous elements next to one another so feeling and pace are lost in the mix.
Crimes against music here include: a continual and heavy abuse in effect of Talvin Singh's (circa 1997) dated asian D&B sound, c r a p emcees with embarrassingly half baked wordplay, a complete rip off of the Dennis Hopper spoken word on Gorillaz' `Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head', and a tendency to jam on in a rambling ravey fashion with no particular feeling or direction against soulless repetitive beat loops.
Redemption comes in the form of the off the wall and genuinely fun `It's A Sitar', and the spot on `Emotional Yoyo'. Which work nicely throughout. Other tracks have some nice elements pulling through but none as strongly as on the standouts.
Considering all this, would I say that this LP was innovative in a way that justifies the sound? In truth, it's too derivative of their previous material to qualify for that, and although their experimental approach is admirable, it is obvious that it is not working here.