The Volt Per Octaves at HumboldtMusic.com

Maybe it's early yet, but I do believe I am listening to the best album released by a Humboldt County band in 2006. The record is called �Sleeping In/Theta Release� and the band is Southern Humboldt's Volt Per Octaves, a family affair comprising Anna and Nick Montoya and sometimes their daughter, Eva. (About the title: one side of the CD's spine says �Sleeping In,� the other �Theta Release;� when I spoke to Nick Montoya about the album earlier this summer he said both were being considered as titles, and I guess it was a tie.)

OK, so why is this the best album of the year, so far, by a local band? First: it's just different -- not only are they not playing one of our region's more, um, over-represented genres (take your pick, but I'm thinking of the one that involves sensitive Ani DiFranco fans with acoustic guitars), but there are no guitars anywhere at all on this recording. And no vocals. And almost no drums.

No vocals? No guitars? No drums? Is it even music? Can I sing along to it? You may be asking yourself these questions. But you, my friend, have forgotten about God's gift to pop music: a little instrument called the Moog synthesizer. I don't claim to be an expert on these -- Nick Montoya qualifies as one, and a fanatical one at that, as he has the Moog logo tattooed on his arm -- but I can tell you that they simply sound awesome. If you have some time, check out Wikipedia's entry on the Moog synthesizer for a little history.

This record, recorded with mostly Moogs, some samplers, a theremin or two (surely the coolest instrument in the world -- you play it by NOT touching it), and whatever other analog gadgetry the Montoyas have managed to collect and manages to sound elegantly simple even amid a veritable orchestra of bloops and bleeps. It plays like an instrumental Portishead album, a cartoon horror-movie soundtrack, or a blues record recorded in outer space.

�Sleeping In/Theta Release� is available from CDBaby and from the band at shows -- which, sadly aren't so local any more. Technically this release is from a Humboldt County band in that it was recorded here; the Montoyas have since relocated to Santa Barbara. Our loss.

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Well, at least for the otherworldly sounds they make with their musical instruments.

Nicholas and Anna Maria Montoya play the Moog, one of the first widely used keyboard synthesizers.

For 30 years, the science fiction-sounding Moog has been used for everything from jazz and pop to funk music, Nicholas Montoya said.

Many may not be familiar with the name Moog, which rhymes with rogue, but you most likely have heard the synthesized instrument played in songs by Parliament, Funkadelic, Pink Floyd, Dr. Dre rap tunes, and even the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

The instrument was invented in the 1960s by Dr. Robert Moog and manufactured and sold from 1970s to the early 80s. A reissue Minimoog synthesizer was recently released.

The Montoyas, bassist J.T. Wild and guitarist Tom Brown, are part of the Moog band "The Volt Per Octaves," which occasionally perform at venues in Lompoc such as Sugar Magnolias and South Side Coffee Co. as well as Santa Barbara.

"I bought my first Moog four years ago and I've always been in love with the sound of the Moog even though I didn't' know what it was always," said Montoya, who has the "Moog" tattoed on his upper left arm. "I just grew up listening to the music my mother played in the house that had a lot of Moog Synth - like for instance Stevie Wonder. The Beatles also used a Moog, most notable in "Here Comes the Sun."

"Stupid little ring tones on minuscule cell phones and all the synth stuff in the 80s is based on technology created by Robert Moog in the 60s," he said.

Montoya said the goal of the band is to spark peoples' interest in vintage synthesizers.

"People take for granted a lot of how audible electronic music started and now all the hip hop and pop music being made is mostly from digital new wave synthesizers and samplers, but the Moog is the roots."

He also said the Moog, an analog instrument, has advantages over it's digital progeny. Analog was used on the old vinyl long-playing albums and on cassette tapes.

"Analog is more pleasing to the ear for the audiophile, and no pun intended, it's also more pleasing for the audio file," Moog said. "The most sought after sound that the Moog makes is its extremely deep bass at almost subsonic frequencies. When it comes to the Moog's bass, even more sophisticated digital synthesizers of today can't reproduce it, because the Moog is analog."

The Volt Per Octaves plan to release an album in mid-June to be sold at Morninglory Music and may even open up the Moog Synthesizer Festival in NYC's Time Square this May, after applying to the festival.

The band's next gig is on May 10, 10 p.m., at Elsie's bar at 117 West De La Guerra, in Santa Barbara.

Staff writer Neil Nisperos can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 108, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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MOOGsters of the Week
Paul Rivas / Santa Barbara Independent
"Never trust anybody who doesn't have a tattoo of what they study," says UCSB professor Milton Love, who studies fish and has a tattoo of one on his arm. Nicholas Montoya, who plays an analog synthesizer called a Moog alongside his wife Anna in their band the Volt per Octaves, has a tattoo of the famous Moog logo on his arm.

The Moog, named after its inventor Bob Moog, is the 1960s predecessor to today's ubiquitous digital synthesizers. The Moog (pronounced with a long o, like "stoked") and its precursor, the Theremin, were the first instruments to use solely electronic circuitry to make music, now a pervasive process in music-making. The Montoyas play several Moogs, including the company's flagship 1971 Moog Prodigy, a clunky wood- and steel-encased synthesizer with keyboard.

The Prodigy is so rickety, and the band's spaceship sound is so strange, Montoya says musicians playing modern, digital instruments often don't know what to do when the Volt per Octaves take the stage. "Keyboardists say, 'What the hell's that guy doing? He's just bringing out his old shit to show off!'" But the fact is, digital synthesizers still cannot reproduce the extremely deep bass sounds possible on the analog Moog, which "can almost do anything humanly audibly possible," says Nick.

The Volt per Octaves, who play regularly at Elsie's, will experience a range of Moog possibilities at the second annual Moogfest at BB King's in Times Square on May 31. The band earned the right to open the festival by winning an international Moog music competition, part of the "huge analog revival." While the Volt per Octaves will open for the likes of Edgar Winter, Bernie Worrell, and Money Mark, Anna says the band is most excited to meet "the Man: Bob Moog."

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Moog Beat (in Fringe Beat Section)
by Josef Woodard / Santa Barbara Independent
THE MOOG BEAT: Synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog (rhymes with "vogue") is one of those strange, enduring American icons. He has tentacles in the nerdy subterranean world of electronic music history. But he also remains accessible to new generations who have rescued Moog from the annals of instrumental obsolescence where the digital keyboard age might have conspired to leave him.

You can also find Moog in his booth at the annual NAMM show in Anaheim, kindly holding court and hawking his new line of products, including his Theremin and Moogerfooger ring modulator. Retro synth sounds never sounded so good.

Moog lovers will descend on B.B. King's Blues Club in Manhattan's Times Square on May 31 to hear the variety of Moog-based musical possibilities in the 2005 Moogfest. The local angle: On the bill will be Lompoc's own Moog-fueled band the Volt per Octaves. Nicholas and Anna Maria Montoya, partners in life and music, command the Moogs in the band, also with bassist J.T. Wild and guitarist Tom Brown. (got e? [email protected])