Half the fun of listening to MoeTar is hearing how well all of these seemingly incompatible musical pieces fit together. Amid sonic references to Zappa, The Beatles, XTC, Gentle Giant, Stevie Wonder, Laurie Anderson and many others, MoeTar offers a fresh approach to rock, pop, electronica and experimental music. Simply put, From These Small Seeds is the culmination of a collision of styles that seems to defy the odds – and our ears.
It's true what they say: opposites do attract. Just ask lead vocalist Moorea Dickason and bassist/songwriter/lyricist Tarik Ragab for the Bay Area-based modern progressive rock band, MoeTar.
"I'm super optimistic and Tarik is more a pessimist," Dickason says with a laugh about her partner Ragab. "We make it work."
That's an understatement. In fact, that such polarized personalities have found another is a metaphor for the band's marriage of diverse musical elements.
MoeTar's Magna Carta Records debut, From These Small Seeds, is a collection of seemingly disparate and opposing sonic forces, which makes a profound and coherent artistic statement. On paper the music shouldn't work at all. The band flies in the face of logic, yet not a musical note seems out of place. Flaunting their musical fluency, MoeTar doesn't avoid challenges: they appear to actively court and thrive on them. Indeed. Inherent contradictions are the subject of many of the band's songs.
"So much of what I write about involves paradoxes," says Ragab. "It seems the rules are set in contradiction to one another."
Along with a versatile and veteran crew of musicians, including guitarist Matthew Charles Heulitt (Zigaboo Modeliste, Narada Michael Walden), drummer David Flores (Lauryn Hill) and keyboardist Matt Lebofsky (miRthkon), Dickason and Ragab balance chaos and precision amid sonic references to Zappa, The Beatles, XTC, Gentle Giant, Stevie Wonder, Laurie Anderson and many others.
Half the fun of listening to MoeTar is hearing how well all of these seemingly incompatible musical pieces together. When Dickason (Moe) and Ragab (Tar) collaborate with their bandmembers the creative sparks fly at such odd and interesting angles. Catchy melodies are juxtaposed with complex time signatures, jazz balladry, electronica, experimental noise and simultaneous guitar-vocal runs. Simply put, From These Small Seeds is the culmination of a beautiful collision of styles that seems to defy the odds – and our ears.
Case in point: the leadoff track, "Dichotomy", which opens with disorienting backwards audio (a la Yes' hit "Roundabout"), is at once ethereal, funky and incisive. In a rapid rolling lyrical style, Dickason fires off a series of provocative lines such as "Paradox dichotomy/event horizon emergency…" as ascending and descending notes blend nicely into the tune's eventual forward thrust.
"'Dichotomy' gets back to one of my favorites subjects: paradoxes," explains Ragab. "The song points out life's contradictions and the fact that I'm not able to wrap my head around them."
The band adeptly creates a range of moods in tracks such as "Ist or an Ism" (a tune warning us about social intolerance) and the grunge-y, vaguely Middle Eastern, number in 5/4, "Infinitesimal Sky." The political elements of "Butchers of Baghdad" slyly and skillfully dissect the perils of our consumer culture and our belief systems. It also speaks to how technology, when placed in the wrong hands, creates confusion and paranoia. As the song relates, "What appears to be transparency reappears invisibly/there for all to see/What is identity?"
"New World Chaos" plays like a dream sequence – and for good reason. The song's Beatles-ish, kaleidoscopic sonic textures, calming piano figures, and ethereal voices lull the listener into a false sense of security, which only reinforces the belief that master villains have infiltrated the upper echelons of our society by concealing their true intentions. As with most layered lyrics, there's more to discover in the song. (So, give it a listen.)
"'New World Chaos' is a play on words," says Ragab. "I think chaos has been used to the advantage of people who capitalize on disasters and suffering, which, ironically, creates a kind of twisted order."
"The song was written, but the lyrics weren't at all," adds Dickason. "Tarik had the lyrical concept of using opposite ideas, which are reflective of our world, in a stream of consciousness style. We both wrote different lines, and the song ended up being about half mine half Tarik's."
The jazzy and downtrodden, yet quite beautiful, "Never Home" shivers with the cold sensation of big city isolation. Wailing guitar tones, which frighten and howl with the intensity of an electrical storm, and spiraling keyboard lines (think Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"), provide the hypnotic and chaotic sonic backdrop for the narrator's emotional turmoil and innermost hopes.
"Random Tandem", which contains bits of psychedelia, jazz-rock fusion and prog rock demonstrates the band's collective and individual versatility. "Singing such fast lines precisely in tune -- the vocal part is in parallel harmony with the guitar and keyboard for most of the song -- articulating tons of words at a pretty rapid rate," says Dickason, "and then on top of that having a quirky and believable performance telling a story of this dream world, was a lot to nail all at once."
She does nail it, flawlessly, and with the moxie of a modern R&B diva. What's so wonderfully wacky about Dickason's voice is that it can be molded into just about anything she wants it to be. One moment her vocals resemble the lyrical musicality of Ella Fitzgerald and the next it recalls the soulful grittiness of Janis Joplin. Yet, at no point does Dickason appear to portray a character or slip into an assumed identity. "This material has a masculine undertone, but I like to think I still sing with a measure of feminine energy," says Dickason.
Prior to establishing MoeTar, Ragab and Dickason were busy causing political uproars with the punk/funk band, No Origin, they'd formed in 2004. "No Origin was overtly political," says Tarik. "I saw what was going on in the world and I couldn't really keep quiet about it. We were more aggressive about our views in No Origin than with this band. You'll find political messages in the music of MoeTar, but we are not beating you over the head with them."
Earlier, Ragab was a member of the art-rock beast, E is for Elephant, which was spearheaded by Bay Area cult figure and Warr guitarist Brian Kenney Fresno. This formative experience afforded Ragab a solid foundation for forming his own nonconformist prog band. "E is for Elephant was my first exposure to the idea of using a regular rock band as a kind of mini orchestra or chamber ensemble," says Ragab. "I was fortunate to have run into these really amazing slightly older more experienced musicians who wanted to work with me and were further along in their musical development."
Since her No Origin days, Dickason has been busy with her singing career, cutting tracks for high profile video games. "Prior to the existence of Guitar Hero and Garage Band, I was asked to do a vocal track for Karaoke Revolution for the song, 'I Love Rock and Roll' by Joan Jett," says Dickason. "I was then later asked to do the Guitar Hero game, the American Idol Karaoke Revolution and some tracks for a dance video game."
Since forming in 2008, MoeTar has been steadily building its following, winning over fans at every turn. Like so many other aspects of the MoeTar story, they've succeeded, seemingly, against all odds, having turned their dream into reality.
"People have said, 'How did this happen to you?" says Dickason. "It was just one of those music industry urban legends that happened to have come true for us. You're always taught, 'Give your all, no matter if there's one or 1,000 people in an audience.'"
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"I'm super optimistic and Tarik is more a pessimist," Dickason says with a laugh about her partner Ragab. "We make it work."
That's an understatement. In fact, that such polarized personalities have found another is a metaphor for the band's marriage of diverse musical elements.
MoeTar's Magna Carta Records debut, From These Small Seeds, is a collection of seemingly disparate and opposing sonic forces, which makes a profound and coherent artistic statement. On paper the music shouldn't work at all. The band flies in the face of logic, yet not a musical note seems out of place. Flaunting their musical fluency, MoeTar doesn't avoid challenges: they appear to actively court and thrive on them. Indeed. Inherent contradictions are the subject of many of the band's songs.
"So much of what I write about involves paradoxes," says Ragab. "It seems the rules are set in contradiction to one another."
Along with a versatile and veteran crew of musicians, including guitarist Matthew Charles Heulitt (Zigaboo Modeliste, Narada Michael Walden), drummer David Flores (Lauryn Hill) and keyboardist Matt Lebofsky (miRthkon), Dickason and Ragab balance chaos and precision amid sonic references to Zappa, The Beatles, XTC, Gentle Giant, Stevie Wonder, Laurie Anderson and many others.
Half the fun of listening to MoeTar is hearing how well all of these seemingly incompatible musical pieces together. When Dickason (Moe) and Ragab (Tar) collaborate with their bandmembers the creative sparks fly at such odd and interesting angles. Catchy melodies are juxtaposed with complex time signatures, jazz balladry, electronica, experimental noise and simultaneous guitar-vocal runs. Simply put, From These Small Seeds is the culmination of a beautiful collision of styles that seems to defy the odds – and our ears.
Case in point: the leadoff track, "Dichotomy", which opens with disorienting backwards audio (a la Yes' hit "Roundabout"), is at once ethereal, funky and incisive. In a rapid rolling lyrical style, Dickason fires off a series of provocative lines such as "Paradox dichotomy/event horizon emergency…" as ascending and descending notes blend nicely into the tune's eventual forward thrust.
"'Dichotomy' gets back to one of my favorites subjects: paradoxes," explains Ragab. "The song points out life's contradictions and the fact that I'm not able to wrap my head around them."
The band adeptly creates a range of moods in tracks such as "Ist or an Ism" (a tune warning us about social intolerance) and the grunge-y, vaguely Middle Eastern, number in 5/4, "Infinitesimal Sky." The political elements of "Butchers of Baghdad" slyly and skillfully dissect the perils of our consumer culture and our belief systems. It also speaks to how technology, when placed in the wrong hands, creates confusion and paranoia. As the song relates, "What appears to be transparency reappears invisibly/there for all to see/What is identity?"
"New World Chaos" plays like a dream sequence – and for good reason. The song's Beatles-ish, kaleidoscopic sonic textures, calming piano figures, and ethereal voices lull the listener into a false sense of security, which only reinforces the belief that master villains have infiltrated the upper echelons of our society by concealing their true intentions. As with most layered lyrics, there's more to discover in the song. (So, give it a listen.)
"'New World Chaos' is a play on words," says Ragab. "I think chaos has been used to the advantage of people who capitalize on disasters and suffering, which, ironically, creates a kind of twisted order."
"The song was written, but the lyrics weren't at all," adds Dickason. "Tarik had the lyrical concept of using opposite ideas, which are reflective of our world, in a stream of consciousness style. We both wrote different lines, and the song ended up being about half mine half Tarik's."
The jazzy and downtrodden, yet quite beautiful, "Never Home" shivers with the cold sensation of big city isolation. Wailing guitar tones, which frighten and howl with the intensity of an electrical storm, and spiraling keyboard lines (think Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"), provide the hypnotic and chaotic sonic backdrop for the narrator's emotional turmoil and innermost hopes.
"Random Tandem", which contains bits of psychedelia, jazz-rock fusion and prog rock demonstrates the band's collective and individual versatility. "Singing such fast lines precisely in tune -- the vocal part is in parallel harmony with the guitar and keyboard for most of the song -- articulating tons of words at a pretty rapid rate," says Dickason, "and then on top of that having a quirky and believable performance telling a story of this dream world, was a lot to nail all at once."
She does nail it, flawlessly, and with the moxie of a modern R&B diva. What's so wonderfully wacky about Dickason's voice is that it can be molded into just about anything she wants it to be. One moment her vocals resemble the lyrical musicality of Ella Fitzgerald and the next it recalls the soulful grittiness of Janis Joplin. Yet, at no point does Dickason appear to portray a character or slip into an assumed identity. "This material has a masculine undertone, but I like to think I still sing with a measure of feminine energy," says Dickason.
Prior to establishing MoeTar, Ragab and Dickason were busy causing political uproars with the punk/funk band, No Origin, they'd formed in 2004. "No Origin was overtly political," says Tarik. "I saw what was going on in the world and I couldn't really keep quiet about it. We were more aggressive about our views in No Origin than with this band. You'll find political messages in the music of MoeTar, but we are not beating you over the head with them."
Earlier, Ragab was a member of the art-rock beast, E is for Elephant, which was spearheaded by Bay Area cult figure and Warr guitarist Brian Kenney Fresno. This formative experience afforded Ragab a solid foundation for forming his own nonconformist prog band. "E is for Elephant was my first exposure to the idea of using a regular rock band as a kind of mini orchestra or chamber ensemble," says Ragab. "I was fortunate to have run into these really amazing slightly older more experienced musicians who wanted to work with me and were further along in their musical development."
Since her No Origin days, Dickason has been busy with her singing career, cutting tracks for high profile video games. "Prior to the existence of Guitar Hero and Garage Band, I was asked to do a vocal track for Karaoke Revolution for the song, 'I Love Rock and Roll' by Joan Jett," says Dickason. "I was then later asked to do the Guitar Hero game, the American Idol Karaoke Revolution and some tracks for a dance video game."
Since forming in 2008, MoeTar has been steadily building its following, winning over fans at every turn. Like so many other aspects of the MoeTar story, they've succeeded, seemingly, against all odds, having turned their dream into reality.
"People have said, 'How did this happen to you?" says Dickason. "It was just one of those music industry urban legends that happened to have come true for us. You're always taught, 'Give your all, no matter if there's one or 1,000 people in an audience.'"
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Progressive Rock & Progressive Metal - E-Zine
