Chroma Key
Graveyard Mountain Home

THE REVIEW

If you listen to "Graveyard Mountain Home" as just a simple musical work, without looking at the CD-ROM that is part of the regular version of the album or the DVD (if you have purchased the collector's edition) of this third work by Chroma Key... you probably won't be that impressed.

But if you make the right choice and listen to this sophisticated mix of dark music, ambient post-rock, and psychedelic sounds while watching the public-domain social film Age 13 (released in 1955), you will consider the multi-instrumentalist Kevin Moore (the main brain behind Chroma Key) a genius.

It's hard to believe that once upon a time this man co-founded and played in Dream Theater, contributing to the creation of gems such as When Dream And Day Unite (1989), Images & Words (1992), and Awake (1994).

As esoteric as his last solo work (Ghost Book from 2004, written as a soundtrack for the Turkish horror-comedy Okul) and far from his last work with Chroma Key (the Parsonian You Go Now from 2000), 'Graveyard Mountain Home' is indeed based on "Age 13", a social film Moore found in an unspecified archive, and which tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who loses his mother and becomes convinced that if he managed to repair the radio the woman used to listen to, somehow he could bring her back from the afterlife.

Moore, by slowing down the film to half speed, decided to record an alternative sound track over the original soundtrack of the film... indeed, it's possible to hear the original dialogues of the film in the background of 'Graveyard Mountain Home'. There is no direct connection between the songs and the action in the film, but Moore has nonetheless excellently recreated the mood of every scene shot.

The latest Chroma Key work opens with a fast beat that combines the xylophone with drum rhythms, then flows into arrangements made of loops, terrifying synth pianos, satanic laughter, and ghostly whispers... moreover, it is Moore himself who sings and creates the sound produced by the rain and lightning. The album concludes with "Again Today", the most traditional song that Moore has ever released (whether you consider his solo works or those signed Chroma Key) from 2000 to today. In the middle is the genius of a man who fortunately knows no limits to his creative capacity.
Originally created as a film for social guidance purposes for schools and police departments and based on a current historical case, 'Age 13' is not exactly a pleasant film to watch, especially due to the chemical degradation and all the exposures the film has undergone. Watched with the Chroma Key soundtrack, it becomes even more shocking, making the visual/auditory experience truly unique in its kind.

If these are the results Moore has managed to achieve thanks to an old 25-minute film reel, the former Dream Theater keyboardist should consider the idea of continuing this path by creating a real series of albums based on obscure films... perhaps also altering their production standards.