- If it wasn't so damn good, you could easily accuse Mo Kolours' music of being a mess. The three EPs Joseph Deenmamode served up over the last four years offered everything from swampy hip-hop to earthy soul via drunk campfire mumbles and sun-scorched house music, always delivered in short, suggestive bursts. What holds it all together is a lovably DIY approach to recording. Every clap and grubby finger click is slightly off-time, each kick drum sounds like a battered cardboard box. Deenmamode's effortless, whimsical vocals either float over dusty spaces or come in oppressively close, like he's whispering right in your year.
The Anglo-Mauritian's debut full-length is a spontaneous sonic collage that leaves the mistakes in. Just as Flying Lotus so exquisitely soundtracked a sweaty day in his neighborhood with Los Angeles, Deenmamode invites us to stroll through his London yard on a humid summer's day. It makes for a pleasing jaunt at a THC tempo where myriad images drift into focus: tweeting birds, kids in a playground, the steel drums of carnival, the hustle and bustle of a street market, snatched snippets of crackly old soul. Some of the tracks are almost annoyingly short—most are less than two minutes)—but only because Deenmamode really knows how to nail a groove. The carefree tumble of "Little Brown Dog" is both earwormy and charming. The gentle heel-to-toe lilts of "Say Word" are as sunny and stoned as anything Nightmares On Wax has ever done.
Mo Kolours is loaded with seemingly impromptu MPC jams, and Deenmamode also rattles his own tambourines, toots on flutes and plays his own hand percussion. His vocals range from mumbled and menacing to floaty and full of neo soul. At barely more than 30 minutes in length, one listen will never be enough. Although his RA podcast showcased a crew of likeminded beatsmiths, for now no one sounds quite like Mo Kolours.
Tracklist01. Brixton House
02. Little Brown Dog
03. Curly Girly
04. Love For You (Humbeat)
05. Mike Black
06. Lighter Break
07. Say Word
08. Afro Quarters
09. Take Us (Interlude)
10. Streets Again
11. 16-bit Slaves
12. In Her Eyes (Funk Heart)
13. Child's Play
14. Natural Disasters Wish List
15. Other Day House
16. Play It Loud (In Your Car)
17. Shepherd
18. Straight Ruk feat. Jeen Bassa