Oxford artist Moogieman plays psychedelic geek pop with his backing band, The Masochists, consisting of:Vincent Lynch on bass Claire LeMaster on synthsStefano Maio on drum machines/percussion Clare Heaviside (who also plays in Shapes (Oxford), pandapopalypse and The Balkan Wanderers) on saxophone.

The band will be bringing out a 10 inch vinyl single in November, including the track Ghost Driver. They aim to follow this up early next year with an album that builds on their new, more electronic, synth-based sound.

The Moogieman project was started by Shan Sriharan in 2010 with a rarely used childhood nickname and a still unfulfilled desire to play Moog synthesisers. Armed with just a guitar, he drew on a range of influences from miserable 80s post-punk bands to vibrant 60s psychedelia and attempted to meld them with obscure lyrical themes such as film photography and rare psychological conditions.

Vincent and Claire joined in 2013 while Clare and Stefano were brought in to reinforce the band for the launch of its debut album Girls And Film. Nightshift magazine did a cover feature on the band in December 2018 and included Moogieman songs in its top tracks from 2017 and 2018.

Moogieman and the masochists are signed to Oxfordshire/Berkshire label All Will Be Well Records and have played at Common People, Oddball, Tandem, the Oxford Punt, Oxjam and Cowley Road Carnival.

According to Oxford’s Nightshift magazine the title track of the band’s last EP, Doppelganger, is ‘straightforward in a vaguely Television Personalities kind of way, except it bobbles and buzzes around like The Residents sneaked into the studio at the point someone pressed Record and no-one realised until it was too late and then everyone decided it sounded pretty cute anyway.’

Sounds like: Magnetic Fields, The Modern Lovers, The Human League, Olivia Tremor Control, early Pink Floyd.
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Artist biography from last.fm