Major Mice (Drum Major Instinct // Mokoondi?)

reviewed by James Flint

Remember Dingwalls? Remember Dance Wicked? Remember Delirium and The Wag? No? So where were you during the mid-90s London dancefloor meltdown? Okay, okay. So you were stuck in Geography classes in a Comprehensive in Devon, learning about terminal moraines, fantasising about rigging up a supercharged booster aerial so you could pick up Giles Peterson. Don’t fret. Attica Blues have got a present for you: a taste of the time when jazz, funk, hip-hop, rock, techno, and rock began to pound together beneath a single groove. Drum Major Instinct (X:treme Records) starts deep with Gangstarr and Jamose, steps up a gear with Paul Hardcastle’s classic ‘Rainforest’, then detours via the Carnival classic ‘Warrior Groove’ before drifting out with Spirit’s ‘Ice’. Perfect for a spring night, if you can find one. And a perfect prequel to Mice Parade’s Mokoondi? (FatCat Records). If Drum Major Instinct charts the build-up to the explosion, Mokoondi? charts its aftermath. A stunning blend of frenetically mellow chinese harp, rolling rhodes and pulsing polyrhythmic beats, with this record Adam Pierce’s band (spot the anagram yet?) establishes itself as among the most interesting and emotionally evocative in the country. Well. In my record collection, anyway. Imagine the Durutti Column with lots of Africa and minus the flat as roadkill vocal, and you’re sort of getting near.

James Flint <jim@metamute.com>

Drum Major Instinct (X:treme Records) // Mokoondi? (FatCat Records)