Mondomarc

Chris Sharp | The Wire

Mondomarc is Marc Domenech Victoria Saura, born in Spain but resident in Berlin since the late 1980s. This is his first album but it feels like a continuation of his work with the group Mondo Fumatore, whose dayglo, cheerfully diverse and periodically inspired music flung anything it could lay its hands on into a sampler and reassembled the parts with haphazard charm. It’snot entirely clear why this is a solo project, as Mondo Fumatore’s other principal member Gwendolin also contributes vocals here, and the serendipitious mood is much the same. This garish, wildly various music is unlikely to appeal to Mille Plateaux or Mego fans, as a track like „Pubertaris“, with its disco propulsion, exuberant bottleneck guitar and distorted vocals quickly demonstrates.

However, in its slightly artless way, much of Sau Ra is as daring as anything assembled by electronica’s more minimal, austere practicioners. „Testbeasto“ for example, occupies shadowy ground somewhere between Dirty Mind-era Prince and contemporary two-step, and still manages to throw a harmonica part into the mix. Elsewhere, the welcome presence of guest rapper Ladyboy on a couple of tracks neatly highlights some surprisingly assured rhythm programming. As long as you can forgive the occasional nods in the direction of Alabama 3, Sau Ra is an appealing collection.