All Back to Vinyl Mamouna by Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry’s 1994 album remains intriguing for several reasons, he spent six years working on the project and would invite various members of Roxy Music to collaborate on the project including Brian Eno. The album would even feature their first co-write on Wildcat Days and also includes one of two appearances on the album from their former band-mate Andy McKay.
Eno’s ‘sonic treatments’ bring a haunting atmosphere to Mamouna while allowing it to stand on its feet as one of Ferry’s most ambitious solo outings to date. Opening cut Don’t Want To Know has a Lynchian quality that segues into the moody NYC perhaps summing more nostalgic images of the Big Apple.
In many ways the album is relatable to David Bowie’s Outside released a year later, also featuring Brian Eno. Perhaps Bowie’s most criminally underrated it features similar sense of an artist pushing themselves in a more challenging direction while channeling the power of a talented team of players. Much like Bowie on Pin-Ups and later Toy, Ferry’s covers album Taxi had helped get his creative juices flowing again. The musicians he worked with on that album would continue the relationship on Momouna.
Originally titled Horoscope, his ninth album includes the hypnotic Which Way To Turn featuring Ferry’s former Roxy Music bandmate Phil Manzanera. His distinctive playing lifts the track to another level. This is an album that benefits repeated listens, allowing it to gradually get under your skin and sweep you away under a moonlight tide, such is the emotional power of the music, melody and atmosphere on tracks such as Your Painted Smile.
The deluxe vinyl edition is presented as a gatefold 2LP edition on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl cut by half-speed mastering at Abbey Road. It features the original Horoscope album which includes an almost 10 minute version of Roxy Music’s Mother of Pearl from their 1973 long-player Stranded. This is an artist at his peak not allowing record company deadlines or the corporate world to define his output.
A mesmerising piece of work.
