MOOCH – Visions

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · December 30, 2024

MOOCH are a heavy rolling rock band from Montreal, Canada. The band incorporates a lot of elements into their sound like psychedelic, blues, grunge, stoner, folk, and prog rock. The lineup consists of Ben Cornell on lead guitars, vocals, and banjo, Julian Iacovantuono on bass, acoustic and slide guitar, and backing vocals, and Alex Segreti on drums, percussion, and backing vocals. Visions is the band’s third full length album and was released on May 3rd 2024. Their other releases are 2020’s Hounds, 2023’s Wherever It Goes, and 2024’s latest Cabin EP. Visions contains eight songs and is about thirty nine minutes long.

The first time I ever heard MOOCH was from an episode of the Doomed And Stoned podcast where they played “Hangtime” as the introduction song. I immediately liked it and it sounded really fresh and appealing to me. I proceeded to listen to the Visions album and saw a Facebook post from John Gist on the Vegas Rock Revolution page, in which he mentioned MOOCH with high praise. I since listened to the band’s other two albums and wanted to get this review in before the end of the year.

“Hangtime” kicks off Visions with a glorious rock song! The vocals begin the song and the band ignites a rock swaggering groove throughout. The tight musical dynamics that the band infuse into the riffs are fantastic. The bluesy tones captured are hard to ignore. Ben Cornell has a very good voice that really works well with these songs. MOOCH incorporate a lot of harmonized vocal melodies on these songs too. The second track called “Morning Prayer” might be my favorite song from Visions. It starts slow and mellow with a nice psychedelic slant and then gets a rocking. The chorus is so infectious and memorable that it will absolutely get stuck in your head. The distorted, almost garage rock sounding guitar tone is very cool also. The song has a grunge and retro rock feel to it. The vocal harmonies on “head to the ground, heart to the sky, feeling it now, and you know you can try” are so good. The musical dynamics are so brilliant on this song. The intricate bass lines from Julian Iacovantuono are fantastic, along with Cornell’s excellent guitar playing and drummer Alex Segreti’s wonderful percussion. At around the 3:15 mark, the song abruptly pauses before kicking back in with a glorious jam. More dynamic vocal melodies, sounding like seventies style rock with exceptional musicianship.

“Intention” begins with acoustic guitars and keeps them flowing throughout the song. Congo and tribal drumming are also present with more great singing to accompany the music. The acoustic guitar leads are excellent too and MOOCH are willing to expand their musical reach to any place they want to. The fourth track “New Door” brings back the distortion and Cornell’s vocals remind me of Jim Morrison on this one. The song triggers a soft psychedelic feel with The Doors like vibes but also spices up with the excellent bass break midway through. From then on, MOOCH displays excellent guitar playing with a fury of leads and very tasty percussive drumming.

“Together” is another solid track that carries a Masters Of Reality or even Pink Floyd essence especially in the vocal delivery. The next song “Vision” is another great song. It’s a more mellow track with a catchy flavor to it, especially the backing female vocal parts. “You Wouldn’t Know” is pretty laid back with subtle distortion and a lush and atmospheric sound throughout. The final song “Reflections” flourishes clean and dynamic guitar sounds with a progressive undertone to it. It’s an instrumental outro that drifts softer towards the end, until it completely fades out.

MOOCH is a band that has really impressed me with this album. After listening to their debut Hounds and the follow up, Wherever It Goes, MOOCH are a very well put together and solid rocking band. All of their releases are great, but I feel Visions is the band’s pinnacle album thus far.