Saskamodie

Mocky has a reputation for suprising people with his music. His electro/hip hop/soul releases to date, wildly entertaining live shows and outstanding production & arrangement work (for Jamie Lidell, Feist, Gonzales, Nikka Costa and Jane Birkin) have cast him as an irreverent, chameleon-like cult figure in leftfield music - not to mention a watermark of quality. Yet even for him, Mocky's newest album is a brave step into unchartered waters, the sound of a musician exploring where his talent can take him with rare confidence and authority.

Named after a song he made up when he was seven using imaginary words, "Saskamodie" is a new future/retro classic: a return to pure musical expression by a cutting edge artist who is no longer bound by the electronic music scene. At different points you'll hear a vintage soundtrack suite, a debonair jazz record (minus the solos) or a golden era '60s soul ballad recording... yet, as if all these charming stylistic sorties weren't loveable enough, cut "Saskamodie" through the middle and you'll find that sweet, inescapably infectious melody is the lifeblood trickling through its core.

"Saskamodie" is Mocky's first release for Crammed Discs. He is listed as playing drums, bass, rhodes, piano, guitar, percussion, bells, recorder, vocals, whistle, organ and toys as well as writing string arrangements. Taylor Savvy, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell, and Feist contribute additional instrumental and backing vocal performances that make this record sound more like a live performance than a studio creation.

Teaming up with Renaud Letang in a vintage soundtrack studio in Paris previously inhabited by the likes of Nina Simone and Serge Gainsbourg, Mocky let his imagination run wild and the results are astounding! Watch out for Mocky’s Saskamodie tour across Europe in 2009.

"The "Mockumentary" for Mocky's new album, Saskamodie, portrays the musician as a kind of musical Zelig, turning up in archival footage of 1950s Egyptian jazz, a 1979 mariachi concert, Japanese koto drumming, even participating in a three-way drum battle with Art Blakey and Elvin Jones. Narrated by a graybeard music professor and featuring cameos from collaborators like Feist, Jamie Lidell, and Gonzales, it's a clever conceit brilliantly executed, and probably deserving of some sort of prize, if there's anything like a Grammy for best online EPK.

Saskamodie is an exceptionally intimate album, the product of a close-knit group effacing their own egos behind the ghosts lingering in their chosen studio. Mocky, who has a wonderfully warm, throaty voice, nestles his singing in amongst the instrumental tracks, rarely letting lyrics assume center stage. You might not even notice Feist's contribution, which peeks over the mix's horizon in faint close harmony. "Music to My Ears" features Lidell but forgoes words entirely, with rounded syllables stepping in unison with piano and bass.

It's an exceptionally musical album-- there's no other word for it-- that could fail to seduce only the hardest of hearing, or the hardest of hearts."
(Pitchfork)

Mocky - Saskamodie (CRAM 140)

CD Album

1.		Mocky - Music To My Ears
2.		Mocky - Little Journey
3.		Mocky - Birds Of A Feather
4.		Mocky - Golden Dream
5.		Mocky - Chubby Cheeks
6.		Mocky - Guiding Light
7.		Mocky - Saskamodie
8.		Mocky - Somehow Someway
9.		Mocky - Jiinti
10.		Mocky - Music To My Ears (Reprise)
11.		Mocky - Sleepy Time
12.		Mocky - For Pepecito

Mocky - Saskamodie (CRAM 140)

Download Album

1.		Mocky - Music To My Ears	4m 17s
2.		Mocky - Little Journey	2m 27s
3.		Mocky - Birds Of A Feather	4m 34s
4.		Mocky - Golden Dream	3m 32s
5.		Mocky - Chubby Cheeks	4m 27s
6.		Mocky - Guiding Light	1m 55s
7.		Mocky - Saskamodie	4m 33s
8.		Mocky - Somehow Someway	4m 9s
9.		Mocky - Jiinti	2m 58s
10.		Mocky - Music To My Ears (Reprise)	42s
11.		Mocky - Sleepy Time	3m 24s
12.		Mocky - For Pepecito	4m 38s

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