Sometimes it takes a while for me to get with the program. I do this blogging thing as a hobby. I work full time [even though I’m old] and have plenty at home to keep me busy. It was over three years ago when Martin James first contacted me regarding the “Generation Blitz” series of compilations that his label, State Of Bass release. They were getting volume two ready and the thought was to review it. Three years later we’ve got volume four at the ready! Meanwhile, Mr. James sent a note regarding the recent spate of reviews/interview we posted on Shriekback and cited himself as a huge fan as well. That’s always welcome.

Except that he took it much further than this Monk! He also fronts a band who took their name from the Shriekback deepcut “Mothloop,” and two weeks ago they just dropped their remix album of their 2023 debut, “Contaminated Disco” and today we’re catching up with both of them because more ears need to be aware of this spicy music! First up: The debut Mothloop album.

MOTHLOOP: CONTAMINATED DISCO

Mothloop: Contaminated Disco – UK – CD/DL [2023]

1. Information Dislocation 04:33
2. Electricity 03:28
3. Quiet Discipline 04:12
4. We Built This Machine 03:02 video
5. Relentless 04:50 video
6. Quantum Creep 04:53
7. Together Apart 05:08
8. We Fight Together 03:43
9. 21st Century Requiem 05:58
10. Nervous Rex 04:49

Let me state up front that Mothloop [Martin James: music, lyrics, vocals, Eno-ish, Timo Jalkanen: production, sounds, noises] come by their moniker very honestly, because if anything, this music bristles with the same dense thicket of energy that The Shrieks were investigating on their “Jamscience” album of 1984. The sort of thing we didn’t hear everyday back then, much less now!

The opener, “Information Dislocation” sounded like a koto tuning up in another room at first, but then the relentless electropulse rose up as the hard rhythms took their place at the front of the line. Roto toms were kicking in for rhythmic filigree as Martin James favored a vocal attack in the first verse that was pure, threatening Steve Mallinder hushed undertones. Trumpet from Gabe Smale was an unforeseen presence as the breakdown before the first chorus gained Pia Nesvara on backing vocals as she and Martin delivered the brilliant chorus; stitched together with Post-Modern thread from three classic choruses that took us from the 60s to the 80s. As the song climaxed the trumpet got its final licks in as the instruments dropped out from the track, one by one.

“Electricity” opened with a door knock sample then we entered the party, already in progress. Densely constructed rhythms where layers of samples [including a bike derailleur] got some special sauce from Matthew Sigley’s slap bass right in our faces. Bella Pearl joined James for the declamatory chanted vocals and, knock me down with a feather, we got a serving of the lonely, Funky flute that I never usually hear outside of Blow Monkeys records from Will Larsen! Synth trills rubbing shoulders with congas delivered the sort of dance music that gleefully ripped up the dance music rule book and delighted in going “off road.”

This was exciting to hear a band taking such rhythmic chances with densely layered loops orbiting each other in eccentric oval paths that made a mockery of four-to-the-floor. When Ms. Pearl hit her rap in the middle eight it more than had a whiff of the great Cindy Ecstasy turn in “Insecure Me.” After living through the horror of the minimal Dance Music of the 90s, it was great to have music like this once more that aimed to heighten stimulation instead of eliminate it from the music.

The lurching, clattering vibe of “We Built This Machine” proffered a gnarly tangle of percussion samples in the impossibly dense music bed and yet it found the time to have Ms. Nesvara providing soulful BVs and the almost dreamy saxophone of Will Larsen forgot that George Michael is dead and this was not a Wham record!

Anyone who reads PPM regularly will recognize that possibly my most used single adjective here is “relentless,” so I was all primed to absolutely love the song of the same title here. And when it began with a quixotic rhythm bed with seemingly random percussion that got a chuckle out of me, but it eventually resolved into a complex polyrhythm that used arrhythmic handclaps with samples of James panting to the beat. More of Mr. Sigley’s bass guitar anchored the bottom end of this one and the fruity sax interjections made of this track the most driven party vibe imaginable. The lyrics in the middle eight were nothing short of brilliant. This was one that was destined to get stuck in my brainpan for hours at a time. Hear for yourself.

So far, the album had ridden on the cusp of chaos admirably well, managing to hold its disparate threads together with aplomb. Only on the track “Quantum Creep” did the hyperdense edifice of sound threaten to fly apart, but perhaps that was intentional. At any rate, can I truly say that I’d find fault with a song that featured squelchy Acid House synths?

“Together Apart” featured excellent beatbox programming and a rare streamlining of the sound this time out. James switched from his declamatory style to his threatening whisper once more and as the track progressed, it began to get top loaded with the sort of rhythmic detail that was this album’s calling card once more. And yet they still found a spot for Gabe Smale’s flugelhorn! Because that’s the kind of album that “Contaminated Disco” just was!

Fans of the John Robie kitchen synch mixology method as applied famously to his remix of New Order’s “Subculture” will find much to contemplate with “We Fight Together.” Shifting gears completely with the placid, stately, “21st Century” Requiem,” found the album getting something of a breather from the typical tension it held in its solar plexus throughout. Vocals here were from Erik Stein of Cult With No Name, an band I’ve heard of but not heard […yet]. The vibe here was redolent of Pet Shop Boys with the gliding string synths holding their own against the typically roiling rhythms as Mr. Stein and Ms. Pearl sang the lyrics that really hit close to the heart of the matter as to why we needed a 21st century requiem. And this song was written, recorded, and released two years ago! But like a life preserver in a wormhole, it’s here for us to gratefully cling to in the now.

Smoky noir sax was the last thing I anticipated on a track called “Nervus Rex” but not to worry: Martin dropped into the track with his frantic, insinuating whisper mocking the laconic horn as the clattering rhythm bed [complete with cowbell] manifested and provided the snapback from the previous track. As the song pushed towards its climax, it became encrusted with ever more layers of sound until the sax returned and the music bed dropped out to have James’ hot breath on our necks as the last thing we heard in this Contaminated Disco.

This was a bracing listen. The fevered complexity of “Jamscience” era Shriekback was palpable as a jumping off point and yet they ended up pushing further into the red with the results here. The one thing in my Record Cell that it otherwise brought to mind was the Róisín Murphy album “Ruby Blue.” That was also built up from dense layers of disjointed samples with unlikely live instruments performing on top of the music bed for maximum disjoint. And of course they both touched upon Jazz + Funk though there was none of the sensuality here that Ms. Murphy brought to her material.

There was a clear-eye near-mania to this album. It offered enervated grooves for enervated times. And it was happy to exist without any rule books whatsoever. I often wonder to myself, why aren’t the rhythms of most music I listen to more leftfield? There’s no reason why it couldn’t be so? With “Contaminated Disco” in the Record Cell, I can wonder no more. The DL is only £7.00 in Bandcamp and there’s also a CD [edition of 50] for only £9.00 for the collector’s mentality. DJ hit that button! Now I’ve done it. I’ve gone on a bit and we’ll have to get to the remix album next time.

BREAKING CONTAMINATED DISCO LP NEWS

I’ve just learned that there is also an LP of “Contaminated Disco” which was available via a third party outside of the Bandcamp ecosystem. Elastic Stage is pressing a short run LP for a great price: $31.90 so if you need the licorice pizza, you’re in luck! DJ hit this smaller button!

Next: …Decontamination Now!