An early review:

‘Flight Of The Dub Voyager’ is something from the Mooch archives, namely this full-length album recorded in 1996. It comprises of a single fifty-seven minute track split into 12 sub-sections. It was recorded over two sessions, with five musicians, and it’s described by the band as “a psychedelic patchwork of ambient rock that would transport the listener to the fantasyland of the good ship ‘Dub Voyager’ – the band’s favourite album of the period”. You need to be aware that this album is something very special indeed – It’s not readily comparable to anyone else around, save the faintest of nods to Steve Roach & Vidna Obmana along the way, but it is an album from which you will derive lots and lots of long-lasting musical heaven for years and years to come. Immaculate! Review from Synth Music Cds

From those lovely chaps at Freakbeat:

Recorded in 1996 this CDR is the first in a series of remasters of recordings by 90's Festi band Mooch who released a number of long out of print recordings through the 1990's. Top notch UK mushroom infested festival trance/ dub/ ambient/ space album that takes a journey on board the good ship "Dub Voyager" through a twelve part audio landscape of trippy psychedelic music in the classic UK underground tradition. Remastered and released in a limited edition by the band.

From the magical portal of Aural Innovations:

Recorded in 1996, Flight of the Dub Voyager is the first in a planned series of remastered versions of Mooch music never before released - except, in a small number of cases, as one-off private releases. The music is compiled from two sessions. The first includes all five band members: Terry Bartlett (treated guitar, percussion), Cal Lewin (keyboards, bass), Garry Lewin (keyboards, percussion), Steve Palmer (keyboards) and Phil Watson (percussion), and the second with just Steve, Cal and Garry. The music is split into 12 parts, but was edited and merged by Steve to create a continuous hour of music. From the beginning the music takes off into interstellar ambient space, but the bass and percussion give it enough of a rhythmic pulse to propel the music into rock territory. Call it ambient space rock. With nearly everyone contributing keyboards you know there's lots happening. But Mooch excel at being busy and multi-layered, yet subtle, well crafted and never overdone. And as you settle in (headphones required!) you'll quickly realize that you've indeed bought a ticket on the dub voyager's flight. Cool cosmic grooves, mind bending atmospherics, deep space keyboards (both analog and digital), alien electronics, and some high intensity symphonic moments that will appeal to prog rock fans. It's a breathtaking trip which you'll easily get lost in.

From the Psychotropic Zone:

Mooch became to life in 1992 when guitarist/sci-fi writer Stephen Palmer got into the Ozric Tentcales and The Orb. He recorded a couple of tapes with various quests before his album 3001 was released by Taste. After that he has released three official CD’s. Since the beginning, Mooch has progressed more into the real band format. The music of Mooch is a rather ambient mix of Steve Hillage styled guitars, keyboards, spacey effects and various ethnic instruments. Now Steve has started a re-release series of the band’s rarer, at the most unofficially released products that have also been re-mastered. This, the first one in this series, was recorded with five members in two sessions in 1996. The actual album is formed with one, hour-long sound collage that has been divided into 12 parts. The music is mostly improvised over pre-recorded loops. The album is rather peaceful and meditative in overall mood, and the going doesn’t get very intense at any point. This CD-R offers a pretty psychedelic, spacious ride, and the music absolutely works the best in the dark with headphones. A band that is absolutely worth checking out.

From the Terrascope Online:

Formed in 1992 Mooch have recorded several albums over the years as well as amassing many hours of unreleased music, which is now beginning to see the light of day, thanks to a cd-r release programme courtesy of guitarist Stephen Palmer. The First of these is “Flight Of The Dub Voyager” , an hour long psychedelic journey into inner space, which features gently pulsing bass, some excellent Tim Blakian synths, and drifting guitar, creating music that is as gentle as watching clouds on a summers day, and manages to avoid becoming repetitive or boring.

From Stephan Schelle's review site:
Translated by the mighty Phil Black, who loves Mooch dearly:

I would like to introduce you to somebody from the boundaries of electronic music..
Mooch was started up as long ago as 1992 by the science fiction author and guitarist, Stephen Palmer There were quite a few different band members, but he has always been the main component. Accompanying him on the second level are the brothers Cal and Garry Lewin. Stephen started remastering older recordings in 2005 to make them available on CD, or rather CDR. The first re-release is this CDR “Flight Of The Dub Voyager", that also has a live take on it from 1996.
Together with Terry Bartlett (guitar, percussion), Cal Lewin (keyboards, bass), Garry Lewin (keyboards, percussion), Stephen Palmer (keyboards) and Phil Watson (percussion) it becomes very clear that the music is a touch electronic. The style is nevertheless not traditional electronics but more a mix of electronics, psychedelia and space music, which could also be called dope smokers music. Similarities to Ozric Tentacles, even though Mooch doesn’t have the Ozric madness, are definitely bubbling under the surface.
The 57 minute long CDR has just one track, that, according to the booklet is split into 12 parts, but has unfortunately no indexes. It starts with a flat chirping (a lot of knob turning here on an analogue synth) and oriental oriented synth sounds on which Cal puts his bass line. The music changes skowly and one really has the feeling that one is floating like a slow glider through the atmosphere, I for one am intrigued what else is to come out of Mooch’s forge.

From Damien "Rubbish Records" Redmond:

...a 20 minute kaleidoscope of sounds that you might find on a nature program on cable tv, if the program included the natural habitats of organic aliens!

From Dead Earnest Records, home of Mooch:

...a single fifty-seven minute track, and the first thing you notice is that it's slowly but solidly rhythmic in a decelerated ambient dub style with gentle drums, percussion and bass in very far eastern mode, while all around the slowly changing rhythmic base, assorted layers of synth heaven slide, glide, soar and swoop to create a truly breathtaking and serenely beautiful setting. Around the 6 minute point, the shape changes as a new sea of heavenly synths appears while the bass and ethnic percussion subtly change rhythmic shape into a more heartbeat setting, eventually disappearing to leave an ocean of synths that soar and fly, dive and echo all around your head to amazing effect. From this a sort of fast-paced sequencer style line emerges, the huge panorama of synth sounds intensify, then all this fades to bring back the opening rhythmic bass as various synth landscapes glitter and sparkle from horizon to horizon - and still we're only nine minutes in with 48 to go. You've got to believe me that if Mooch can achieve such spectacular soundscapes and moods in just nine minutes, when I tell you that the rest of the album features a jaw-dropping array of layers, textures, similarly paced rhythms, soundscapes, moods, atmospheres, spacious soundpools, miles of gorgeous synth flows and a warmth and depth that few synth musicians operating in such an ethnic field can match, then you have to realise that this album is something very special indeed, is not readily comparable to anyone around, save the faintest of nods to Roach/Obmana along the way, and is an album from which you will derive lots and lots of long-lasting musical heaven for years and years to come. It's immaculate.

From www.melliflua.com, by Dene Bebbington:

Flight of the Dub Voyager is the first of a series of Mooch albums to be remastered. Harking back to two recording sessions in 1996 it comprises one track divided into twelve sections. Mooch are a band of five people, including musician and Sci-Fi novelist Stephen Palmer. The aim of the band on this album was to "create a psychedelic patchwork of ambient rock that would transport the listener to the fantasy land of the good ship Dub Voyager".
Thankfully the psychedelic aspects are kept in check and are not too "out there". The general flow is to have quirky and vaguely melodic sections punctuated by faster rhythmic passages. Throughout most of the album there is overt or hinted at rhythm, in some places by a quiet (hand beaten?) drum in the background. One unbroken track gives it an epic quality, somewhat like that of Touxhtone's One.
The album begins with an easy paced patting percussion alongside subdued but funky bass. Over the top of this we hear snippets of voices, occasional bell tinkles, and a variety of effects. Often this one track veers into territory one doesn't expect, though it's often unusual in a likeable way. In one short passage there's rustling like that of many old metal milk bottle tops as a reverbing drone tapers off into the distance and grooves using drums and bass come in.
There's an eclectic feel to the album, as though we're being taken on a journey through a variegated landscape. Sometimes it's like hearing early Pink Floyd, particularly in one section where high pitched sonics assault the hearing with almost demented drums, guitar riffs, and watery electronic effects like an unreal gurgling river.
I can't say that Flight of the Dub Voyager is the kind of thing I'd normally listen to, but it's an intriguing work and stands up to repeated listens.

from Modern Dance 51:

We have reviewed the music of Mooch in previous issues, and now the recording number 1 has been re-mastered. The original was recorded back in 1996 in two live sessions to DAT. The first featured 5 musicians and then followed an overdub by just three of the team. By utilising a series of preprogrammed loops the music was developed but the musicians were still given plenty of space to improvise. They describe their sound as a psychedelic patchwork of ambient rock. So on with the show and the first thing to strike me is that there is only one track listed on the CD player although the sleeve notes give a total of twelve. The opening track contains a single hit to a bell that rings very loudly and the cadence is sharply brought into focus – talk of ringing in the ears! Although described in the title as a Dub Voyager, it’s not overtly dub inspired music although the bass guitar is quite prominent during certain sections. With the instrumental lasting for almost an hour, the listener must surely ponder whether the music can hold the attention, but each passage is sufficiently different that your interest in easily maintained. As almost a decade has elapsed since its original release which I suppose is enough time to bring the term nostalgia into play, but even if you do the music does not appear to be dated. It could so easily be a contemporary score for those wishing to become enlightened. The hypnotic congas playing and sumptuous melody provide a very memorable section after about 50 minutes which swirls in the head as though on a cosmic trip and provides an excellent finale. This is so much better than I would have imagined and naturally comes with the recommended listening monicker. (Brooky)

See also Remasters Series

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