Gold Of My Own
Album: Mondo Romance
Label: Fishlegs
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.gomo-music.com/

Sometimes what you really need is time… a lot of time. And when the time is right, it's right. The right time. Got it. Good. So then, the time for Gold Of My Own is now. Now is the time, the right time. It must be, for why else did this velvet smooth debut spend 15 years in gestation. By now GOMO should be enjoying the fruits of a decade and a half of music making, high on the happy side of a hard-won reputation for cracking classy nu-souljazz jams and bebop-infused funk.

The work started around the turn of the century when singer Vanessa Freeman and multi-instrumentalist Chris Pedley got together and found their mojo inhabiting similar territory drawing good cheer from hip hop, classic funk and soul, cool jazz samples and out-there beats. Imagine Erykah Badu tripping with early Massive Attack as Drizabone takes a back seat and Soul II Soul cheer them on.

The sound has the grit and dancefloor directness of a bygone age, scratches made on real records and samples made by cutting tape - listen to the run-out on Colours, the sound of old tech being manhandled in new ways. It sounds nothing like it, but it's just like George-y boy did on Strawberry Fields in '67.

Elsewhere, the delicious Words Are Not Enough is a beautiful contemporary soul tune no matter what date the time machine take you to, creating a space for analogue and digital to exist in perfect harmony. Of the instrumentals, Out of My Hands offers a jazzy translation of cut-up soul and If Only gives Ms Freeman's uniformly impressive vocals a rest to allow piano, bass and guitar room to make sweet melody.

The voice is back to the fore in the finger-popping jazz jam Breathless (nice touch of Roy Munnings' guitar grease too) before the slipped beats of Forever Love dance a dizzy tune with strings, guitar and vocals; while the closing cut Never Give Up prompts some old school hands in the air second summer of love japery.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk