MOOCH - A BRIEF HISTORY:
Phase One:
Mooch began in April 1992 as the band of guitarist Steve Palmer. Influenced by such groups as Ozric Tentacles and The Orb, Steve recorded a few tapeswith various guest performers before recording the album that was to surface on the Taste label as '3001'. This album was a concoction of Hillage-style guitars,spacey fx, keyboards and ethnic rhythm patterns, and first came to prominence via enthusiastic promotion from Andy G and Clarey B who ran Mike Lloyd Music Mail Order. The music itself was individual and unique, totally unlike the rest of the ambient music scene.
This was soon followed by a second CD 'Postvorta', which was more sophisticated, featured more ethnic elements, plus performances from Conan McPhee (son of Groundhogs guitaristTony McPhee) on bass guitar, plus Hazel Dean and Mike Wright on Tibetan bowls. 'Postvorta' was well received by the underground press, and even attracted the attention of Radio OneDJ Mark Radcliffe, who played tracks from it on his evening show. At this time the band had played just one concert and remained essentially a studio outfit.
Steve began to meet other musicians in the area, most notably the Lewin brothers, Cal and Garry. Between them, they recorded a number of cassette albums (which still remain unreleased), culminatingin the third ethno-ambient CD, 'Starhenge', on the Taste label, featuring the keyboards of Cal and Garry to great effect. This marked the end of Mooch's first phase.

Read the CD reviews of the first 3 albums here

Phase Two:
A few concerts followed, the tape albums continued to be recorded and remain unreleased, while Steve began working with other musicians, most notably the Cheltenham based guitarist/composer Pete Wyer,an old university friend. At this point they began taping outdoor sessions live to DAT, usually at ancient stone circles in the English landscape, then using the recordings in finished pieces.
The musical style was now stronger, featuring analogue sequencers, keyboards and the ever-increasing array of ethnic musical instruments from African percussion, through Indian and Middle Eastern strings, flutes from across the world, to oddities suchas a Burmese beatergong and a Russian balalaika.Phase Three:
Steve's move to the south west of England coincided with the development of a stronger, more cohesive musical style, doing much more with computer-based compositions, and new musicians with whom he still works, most notably in the Exeter area. With more tape albums seeing the light of day, but still none released to the public, Mooch began 1998 doing more live concerts with sets ranging from space-dance to ethnic ambience, the band playing gigs such as the Megadog Beach Festival and as support to ex-Hawkind bassist Alan Davey's new group, Bedouin. Now, finally, a new CD is out on the Dead Earnest label which is guaranteed to surprise and delight old fans as well as win over many new oneswith its more electronic approach, while still retaining elements of the old Mooch atmospherics. The CD is called 'In Search Of The Acid Metal Grille'
'In Search Of The Acid Metal Grille' has since generated a lot of favourable press coverage. With Mooch's prolific recording output, there was a wealth of excellent music,old and new, to be considered for future albums. But the new material recorded by the band showed them going in a new, harder, more rhythmic,direction. Dead Earnest sifted through the new and less new music with a view to a new Mooch album.
In the meantime, Steve had issued a limted edition privately-released Mooch album on CD-R, 'Flight Of The Dub Navigator', along with two new CD's by his alter-ego project, Blue Lily Commission.
Press Reviews of "Acid Metal Grille"

In 2007, the second album on the label, Gaiaspace, was issued. A more varied and yet even more cohesive and stronger sounding album, this saw Mooch cover territory of a predominantly rhythmic nature, but not without the familiar traits still there, so that Moroccan stood next to Berlin, as serene melodies and sequncer beats mixed to perfection.

STEVE PALMER - A BRIEF BIOG:Spent early years in Wales and Shrewsbury. Read physics at the University of London. He is perhaps best known fro the two Science Fiction novels that were recently published by Little & Brown. 'The first, 'Memory Seed', was published under the Orbit imprint in 1996,while 'Glass' was published in 1997. The novels feature a rich style and a strong ecological concern. Click here to view his own website.

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