Your reviewer's quite ashamed to admit that - barring ex-Kenickie Johnny X's outings J XAVERRE and recently with MATT HARDING'S excellent "Commitment" album - he was hopelessly ignorant of the quietly influential records seeping into the marketplace courtesy of North London's mighty fine Moshi Moshi Records.
But, fear not: salvation is on hand for the uniniatiated in the shape of this fine new compilation "We Got Monkeys - Five Years Of Moshi Moshi Records" which - aside from a fetching sleeve depicting what appears to be Barbary apes - makes it abundantly clear that this tasteful little label has amassed a damn-near perfectly-formed back catalogue from its' N4 hidey-hole over the past half-decade.
MATT HARDING, of course, we know and love already, but its' great that the chunky beats and heavily reverbed psych guitars of his new album's "Flint" kick us off and he weighs in with a second classic in the shape of the fragile, haunting "Tonight" midway through, while J XAVERRE'S lovely, mellifluous "Bingo Wings" also makes a welcome reappearance.
But these are only the tip of a Titanic-size iceberg, it seems. Indeed, everything bar the bad, pseudo-Grunge of PHIL STADIUM'S "Breakdown" (which one can only hope is en elaborate piss-take) and the jarring big beat boutique of ZAN LYONS' "Suicide" comes across as at least very good and usually the selections lean towards positively thrilling.
Several of the artists are allocated two cuts and largely that's merited, not least in the case of INGO STAR CRUISER, HOT CHIP and JUNKBOY. ISC team up with NOONDAY UNDERGROUND to unveil the skittery urban soul of "The Plague" and follow up with the oddball, Casio-fuelled gourmet delight of "Seafood"; HOT CHIP offer up the wonked "Take Care" and the immortal image of cruising in an open-top Peugeot, "blazing Yo La Tengo" during "Playboy" which is even better for resembling early Depeche Mode, while JUNKBOY'S expansive, somnolent Talk Talk-style soundscapes conceal hidden intrigue, with the Watergate-style snippets of conversation on "Welcome To The Party" including such scary stuff as "Shut up! you're not gonna kill this guy....I would, I'd kill him in real life, I'd kill him dead." Whoa!
|
Elsewhere, the organic noodles with the electronic via PEDRO vs.KATHRYN WILLIAMS' "Demons In Cases", which pushes she of the little black numbers into strange, but likeably alien sonic territories, UNSOUND whip up a mean, motorik thrum on the brilliantly-titled "Devote Your Life To A Lost Cause" and BLUE FOUNDATION come over all soulful and seductive on the Morcheeba-ish "Hollywood."
Overall, virtually everything here suggests Moshi Moshi's relative obscurity must surely become a thing of the past before long. To have remained ignorant of them seems shameful in itself, but to pass up this golden opportunity to brush-up via this tasty compendium would be nigh on lunacy. Here's to the next five years: let's hope they can't stop monkeyin' around.
|
