Jean Jacques Perrey's Moog Indigo

The Moog synthesizer was only a few years old when this album released in 1970 and it had not yet become a favorite instrument for prog rockers and others who were into experimental music. This set of short instrumental pop tunes from French electronic music innovator Perrey sounds very much of the era it originated in, which means that today this reissue is totally kitschy cool. All that's needed on "Soul City" are some go-go dancers while "E.V.A." finds Perrey piling on the effects and getting a bit (outer) spacey; "The Rose and the Cross" is baroque prog of the sort that Rick Wakeman would soon make a career out of. Perrey has a blast hamming it up on the chestnut "Flight of the Bumblebee" where the Moog's melodic bee buzz races along to frenetic percussion, and he has as much fun with his own composition "Gossipo Perpetuo," an effervescent two-minutes of Moog madness complete with a chorus of distorted lyric-less vocals. "Gossipo Perpetuo" kicks off the album's B-side, which carries on with the mirthful "Country Rock Polka" and "The Elephant Never Forgets," another tune that's impossible to listen to without a goofy grin of appreciation. Perrey turns out to be quite prescient by naming the album's final tune "Passport to the Future;" how right he was. Back in the day a listen to Moog Indigo no doubt elicited cries of "Far out man!" and by any standard it remains far out today. Get your copy here.

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