During their dozen years of existence Electric Moon have been jamming and putting out (in the majority live) releases quite diligently, making them a household name in psych circles rightfully.
With "Phase" bassist Lulu now looks back on their studio work so far with this compilation on her still young label Worst Bassist Records.
As so often now the record pressing takes way longer than initially expected. However the CD version has already seen the light of the full moon night, so there might be some vinyl enthusiasts out there contemplating about buying the smaller disc for a change. And of course there's the obvious question for any fan, who's already familiar with the tracks, whether this "best of" counts as a worthwhile purchase in the first place. Unless you're a completist collector and must have it no matter what... but are you guys even reading reviews?
But to give you an answer: I feel very confident to say that "Phase" is successfully aiming at the longtime and newly moonstruck crowds alike.
Starting with two cover tracks - "Madrigal Meridian" by Tangerine Dream and the most natural choice from the Beatles catalogue "Tomorrow Never Knows" - the compilation presents a little bit more obscure shorter tracks from samplers, splits and EPs with epics from their studio albums.
Since those are often ten or even over twenty minutes long, they take up most of the playing time. But since all of this stuff has been remastered and sounds better than ever, there's no super strong reason to complain about that déjà-vu.
Yet if the music, which is sorted in a nicely flowing order, is not enough for you, there is still the artwork, design and packaging, into which Lulu poured lots of love. Often CD digipaks just feel like too simple "lesser" versions of albums, but this double CD doesn't belong into that category.
The booklet contains a humorous summary of the band's history so far. Given that there has been quite some circulation on the drummer's chair behind the core of Komet Lulu and Sula Bassana, the Spinal Tap references in here shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
I also shouldn't forget to mention that there are three CD-and-digital-only bonus tracks, which add up to a respectable forty minutes and would have demanded a complete third record in the vinyl version.
All in all "Phase" is just a well-rounded, beautiful best of + rarities release, which does everything right to not be redundant to those already in the know, but which also provides a great starting point into the cosmos of Electric Moon or even the whole world of improvisational krautrock.
Levitate in the Electric orbit and chill!
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