Zmatsutsi Mogadishu

After freaking us out with Eirwud Mudwasser's voodoo inspired "Ziggurat EP", Andy Pye's most excellent Balearic Social records drop a second release from the mysterious Zmatsutsi. After negotiating the smoke and mirrors of the pre-release promotion, Zmatsutsi have revealed themselves as Joe Gill (of Bakery fame) and long time collaborator Tim Hutton with a little extra vibes and vocals help from the wonderful Heidi Armitage. After an especially messy after-hours session at Outlaws Yacht Club, Joe and Tim decamped to the studio and set about capturing the magic and madness of a late night conversation with Heidi, concocting a track packed with off kilter funk, power Balearic chug and speaker hugging synth riffs. B-52s meet World Premier backing laid down, Joe and Tim took the next logical step, inviting Heidi to wax lyrical on a Gina X tip and before they knew it the swaggering sleaze of "Mogadishu" was born. A2 cut "Spanish City" retains the beefy new beat bass sound but adds emotive chimes, quicksilver guitar licks and tropical keys to take us for a ride along with Crockett & Tubbs. Kicking off the flip in uplifting, floor moving fashion is "Les Europeennes", a sublime blend of dreamy pads, tripped out sequences and proggy chord progressions underwritten perfectly by the slow motion shuffle of an irresistible bassline. Joe & Tim bring the curtain down with the tribal malevolence of "Dark Eyes", a smoldering fusion of gentle mallets, future primitive textures and bowel emptying bass which perfectly captures the fear and excitement of a late night lift home from Andi Hanley. If slo-motion treacle dancers and wrong speed madness is your kind of party, you'll go bananas for this synth heavy stomp-a-thon.