Reflexion X - Mary Mo

Hear The Track Here

Gotta love all these 'tags' and word cloud things eh? What?? Like the one David Cameron presented to Barak Obama on his recent visit? Or like Wordle which, btw, is an amazing site all on its own. The reason I lug this conversational crippler into the review is that I always check people's word cloud tags on Soundclick and I was struck by how normal it seemed to do that. Obviously the onset of galloping insanity on my part, so lets desist with it. It was kinda fortunate that this was paired up with Karma Police UK this month because - in some ways - these are similar musicians. Both are electronica to the max and both have finesse and style by the bagload. In point of fact, the last Reflexion X track I reviewed - God Vs Satan (June 2010) - got a very well deserved Must Have and usually after them I tend to expect more. Sad, but true.

Right from the outset, Mary Mo works at your resistance, and that is a sign of its power. Normally, whenever the term euro was applied to a track, it was an even bet that I wouldn't really like it. That is partly cultural (being a perfidious Englishman) and partly a matter of taste. I grew up on a steady diet of the nightmare that is the Eurovision Song Contest and I think it soured my view of the genre for generations to come. Funnily enough, there really IS a euro sound, and very identifiable it is too. I can quite honestly say, with no word of mendacity, that if all Euro sounded like Mary Mo, then I might be a tad more lenient towards the genre.

There is a strain of music in whose ghostly strands you can still hear the brass pom pom pom pom metre that is an essential European sound, and it is at the heart of the modern music they call Euro and - to me - I think this is the most interesting and entertaining I've ever heard it sound. Much of the credit for that has to go down to the remarkable production Reflexion X is capable of, there are a couple of moments in this track that you may well play over and over again, I know I did. Just for the joy of hearing them. Of particular note is the flanged/phased/stunned wandering guitar lead that quite literally stopped me in my tracks. While it doesn't have the drama of God Vs Satan, it's still an incredibly strong track and shows that Reflexion X is on a roll.

Highly Recommended Euro Electronica