Mother Rose is the latest project from musical miscreant and Classic co-boss Luke Solomon. It sees him team up with journeying guitarist Andy Neal to craft something a world away from his last outings on, say, Fullbarr or Crosstown. The dance floor hasn't been ditched entirely—you can certainly still get down to these in the right context—but gone are all traces of house, techno and electronic repetition in place of lazy but strident dub tempos, big licking guitar riffs and woody instrumental funk.
Doused in reverb and echo, great sweeping guitars open "Mellow Down" with a truly gravelly resonance. A fluttering harmonica then displaces you somewhere in the US's deep south while more twanging guitar notes ping about with all the rawness of contemporary cult blues hero Seasick Steve. "Refried 86" is similar in its gauzy guitar density and sluggish nu-disco tempo, but this time you could imagine the track fitting into an unreleased version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon for its lead solos, gaunt vocals and proggy undercurrent.
"Tell Me" is much lighter, rumbling along on ramshackle lines of drums, guitars, horns and no doubt many other indecipherable instruments. Not so Daniele Baldelli's remix of "Mellow…" The Italian disco king punctures his version with a spaceship's lasers beams, brings the kick drum to the fore and strips the soul of the original vocal away to leave something much sleazier in its wake. Fans of Timothy J Fairplay, Andrew Weatherall or Trentemoller will certainly enjoy this one.
Tracklist: Mother Rose - Mother Rose 001
A1 Mellow Down
A2 Tell Me
B1 Refried 86
B2 Mellow Down (Daniele Baldelli Remix)
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