Mocky's debut disc, In Mesopotamia, came out in 1999. Then, it came out
again in 2001. And, then, again, in 2003. It was the album that kept on keeping
on, and that turned the perception of Mocky from trailblazer to coattailer, even
if this changing, wide-ranging conception wasn't conceived in a way that mocked
Mocky. See, Mocky was part of that whole scene of Canadian expats who transplanted
themselves in Germany, a musical family of friends — Peaches, Gonzales,
Taylor Savvy — who've all gone on to have their time in the sun. He was
the first of them to issue an album, but, in 1999, when In Mesopotamia was
first released in its initial version, it was delivered to a world three years
away from some dick coming up with the term "electroclash." Mocky came out
in a musical time hardly welcoming to one-man electro-showman, let alone ones
whose
lengthy history of jazz musicianship makes their songs compositionally complex.
But as Gonzales, and then Peaches, and then Savvy all knocked down performative
doors, the world soon seemed ready for Mocky; and, last year, when "Sweet Music" got
issued, so many years on, as a single on tastemaking German imprint Gomma, it
become a set staple for many a floor-filling disc jockey. As finally-issued follow-up
longplayer, the drolly dubbed Are & Be ups the Mocky ante and then some;
it's a superlative set of space-funk slow-jams in which busy electro beats and
bouncing elastic basslines are splattered with obtuse keytone melodies, the set
strewn from soup to nuts with Mocky's nearly non-stop lyricism, which is so forthright
that the jazz-student busyness of his musical business is hidden behind this
wholehearted humor. His high-comedy rhymes will feel familiar to fans of Gonzales
(especially on cultural references like Klaus Kinski), but Mocky is more insightful
on the mic, with most of his insights being personal — unto him, and to
the human beings as a species. There are some humans, here, whose known names
make their guest-spot appearances notable — the smoove crooner Savvy, gonzo
Warp geezer Jamie Lidell, Gonzo associate Feist (fresh off her starmaking turn
on the Kings Of Convenience album) — but, really, it's always Mocky's show.
And his one-man show is a riotous revue; Are & Be is boisterously blessed
with an almost unbelievable amount of memorable melodies, the gear filled — literally — with
hummable tunes and smarmy choruses; not a song herein doesn't demand repeat-play
attention. And a disc without tracks you want to skip is sure something to treasure
in the ought-five.
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