Moon B Has a Different Idea of Dirty South

If any style of dance music has been on the ultimate slow burn, it's boogie. It first arrived during a time when disco was fading and music fans were on the awkward cusp between vinyl and cassette. Big hair was starting to push out Loleatta Holloway. Boogie had its influence and shining stars—from a young Prince playing guitar for 94 East to the D-Trains and Zapps who inspired the basis of electro (think Afrika Bambaataa not Justice)—but boogie artists, and therefore records, were small pockets and small pressings across the US leaving a trail of tiny breadcrumbs for those who fell in love with the chuggy synth fuzz years later. Moon B is one artist keeping the boogie alive. He just released his second LP and it sounds right at home in the bin with an old Advance or Ray Parker 45.

I first caught Moon B at a PPU Video Party at Brooklyn's sorely missed 285 Kent a few years back. I'll have to admit from the sound of his first record I was surprised that Moon B was a contemporary artist. I grabbed it as I do with most things on PPU, assuming it was a lost gem from the 80s. In fact, Moon B is the alias for Wes Gray, a musician and dad in the Atlanta suburbs who fell into the funk and never looked back.

"I was raised in Memphis and really what got me into my sound was the old Three Six Mafia mixtapes we passed around middle school," Wes says in a rare moment not keeping up with his one-year-old son. "Back then, they only recorded to four tracks and sampled a bunch of blues and funk, we had one at the house so I started trying to make my own stuff, there's a ton of influence on the boogie sound in the South from Isaac Hayes to Cameo, it's all connected."

Like any boogie artist, Gray say he "just tried to sound like Prince or Michael Jackson on a bad day. Taking piano lessons was surely a part of it but it was the electronics that had me mesmerized." He had been buying records from the Earcave webstore and sent the label's head, Andrew Morgan, his demo tape, later released as his first LP. Through DJing gigs and remix work, often under aliases Vaib-R and Sean Sanders, Gray has been able to leave his day job in veterinary pharmaceuticals for a full time career in music.

Pictured here on the stand is probably my favorite synth, the Roland Juno 1. Between presets, custom basses, pads and electric pianos are easily the most appealing to my ears. It is also easy to edit and is lightweight in stature. Next to it is the Ensoniq ESQ-1. This synth, contrary to the Juno 1, weighs a ton but it's hybrid analog/digital emissions have made their homes in my ears and records as well.

It will 99% of the time begin with the beat for me. Pictured is the classic Roland 707 and the Yamaha RX11. I'll lay down several patterns onto the 4 track as a template to jam over, but said template will nearly always be replaced with sampled drums later during editing and arrangement sessions.

All I need, really. Ideas and sessions are continuously laid down right here. The jams are eventually fed into the next piece of equipment (KORG Microsampler) where they are whittled into songs.

Out of the 4 track and into this machine, which has been a blessing as I struggled with sequencing for a long time. I feed straight out of the tape machine into it -- the idea being to grab ("sample") measures of appealing bits from the sessions. It has built-in effects (delay, reverb, compression) which I put to use as well. Fill up the keys with data, then on to patter wheel with DNA for the songs and then hammer out the track.

Moon B's Boogie 101

Michael Sterling - "You"
Simply brilliant bass line and lead synth line work matched by Sterling's unique vocal stylings. Top notch.

Tara - "Fresh Flesh"
A Barry White produced gem that attempts to plant it's foot in Morris Day/The Time territory. Nothing like those off measure modulated synth chord breaks and drops that carry this monster!

Fast Forward - "Water Bed"
Another beast for me.. Semi warped and lovely pad chords over a slanky basslines and vocals. Can't fast forward through this one!

Ultimate Choice - "Little Red"
Higher tempo boogie funk with a crunchy synth drum snare. Synth work so wormy and raw with cheeky lyrics to boot. Gotta have it.

Bill - "Space Lady"
Beautiful piano chord/synth arrangement matched to wiggly and gritty synth bass? It will get me every time. And the swanky "laaaa-daaaay" BV's are on point. "Don't wake me up!"

Richard Simms - "Under Your Spell"
Had to throw in this bit of influential "abstract boogie" as I call it, by Wicked Witch aka Richard Simms. Don't let the labeling of the video (saying 1978) fool you, as it is wrong. This is a straight Yamaha RX drum machine and DX synth head bender circa '87 when this gear was creatively prevalent. Straight off a 4 track tape machine too --Love…

Moon B's sophmore LP 'II' can be purchased direct here
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Joel is probably spending too much money on records. @freemagic