MICKO & THE MELLOTRONICS レコード& CD

Review: The traditional start to any review of any release from Micko Westmoreland - who started life as electronic wizard The Bowling Green, went solo and then formed the post-punk Micko & The Mellotronics project - is to state that he is best known for his acting role in 90s glam rock flick Velvet Goldmine. However, with tireless gigging, some memorable Ashley Jones-directed videos featuring various icons of alternative comedy, and now, with Le Vice Anglais, two excellent Mellotronics albums, that may no longer be the case. Expect spiky, English eccentric songwriting of the kind XTC or even Pulp might create, with Westmoreland's familiar obsessions - childhood and the effect it has on the rest of life, class and a general voyeuristic love of peculiarity - running rampant. Singles 'Autosexual' and 'What's In A Name' are speedy, jagged standouts, but the more reflective 'Holloway Road', in which he takes on the mantle of one of its more famous past residents, Joe Meek, is just as engaging, only in more subtle ways.

Review: Rip it up and start again seems to be the mantra of Micko Westmoreland, the Leeds-born, London-based Micko in the Micko & The Mellotronics equation. He's had a succession of interesting careers already, firstly acting in cult 90s imaginary glam biopic Velvet Goldmine, then making sampladelic electronica as The Bowling Green before becoming a solo artist. This latest incarnation clocks in somewhere between punk and rock - you'll notice almost but not quite actionable appropriations of well-known Kinks, Beatles and early Floyd trademarks nestling in between harsher-edged echoes of Magazine, Jam and Buzzcocks. There are impressive guests from Specials bassist Horace Panter to Neil Innes, making one of his last appearances here, but the real power is in the observational lyrics and catchy songs, and the well drilled power of the Mellotronics themselves, with the unrelentingly shitkicking drum style of Nicholas Mackay deserving of specific singling out.