Sunday, May 6, 2007  3:02 pm 

Luna Miami

Now we are not sure why the silent genius Bumrocks has not put Clara Mondshine on his ruby red list of wonders, as we say it would fit ever so snug inbetween, say, Chas Jankel and Rinder & Lewis with its off-kilter styles and made-by-aliens production.

Clara Mondshine - Landing On A Full Moon

‘Landing On A Full Moon’, from the “Luna Africana” 1982 LP, depicts an expedition to The Moon in a tin-can. But, instead of zero-G, boring craters and space dust, Clara shows us vast jungles full of alien creatures, spindly mile-high luna sky scrapers and dimly-lit undeground caves. Its as much ‘Another Green World’-era Eno as it is Bowie’s ‘Low’ instrumentals, just with a Afro-tribal synth drumbeat.

Clara’s tin-can spaceship comes crashing back to Earth, plopping straight into the depths of the Miami harbour. Crockett’s pet alligator, Elvis, is Moon-bathing on the deck of his keeper’s sailboat. He glances through the cobalt-grey tint of his aviator shades at the ripples shifting over the water from the can’s impact for a brief moment, then goes back to listening to Huey Lewis & The News on his vintage Sony WM-24 Stereo Walkman (course, it weren’t too vintage back then).

Elsewhere in the neon-drenched streets of Miami the stench of money and excess is replaced by exhaust fumes from Crockett and Tubb’s speeding Ferrari Testarossa, cutting a headlight flashing scar across the tarmac. They stay hot on the tail of the coke dealing scum (probably Mexicans) and corner them at the shipping yard where all hell breaks loose with machine guns, shotguns and the odd grenade. Back-up is called but is not needed as Tubbs’s 9mm rings out and his last bullet pierces the head of the chief drug baron. The choppers hover in slow motion overhead as our heroes walk off into the rising sun.

Jan Hammer - Dark and Dusk

labels >> Miami, alligator, the moon