Do You Like My Tight Sweater was released in a year when female vocalist led down-tempo acts were hitting saturation point. There seemed to be literally hundreds of enthusiastic epigones attempting to emulate the work of "trip-hop" artists like Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead and Smith and Mighty. Most of these acts took the same introspective, zeitgeist-capturing route of these seminal Bristol bands--but not producer Mark Brydon (House Arrest, Cloud 9) and singer Roisin Murphy, aka Moloko (a name taken from the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange). Their debut album, cheekily titled Do You Like My Tight Sweater, arrived on the dance scene without fanfare at around this time and presented a radically different take on the down-tempo sound. Boisterous, surreal and humorous, the LP resists the temptation to conjure up yet more disenchanted inner city isolation, seeking instead to paint a brighter--or at least quirkier--picture of modern living. Murphy's elfish, stream-of-consciousness lyrics are delivered here with an infectious slink appeal and are the perfect match for Brydon's slightly bonkers mix of hip-hop beats and funk mixed with groans, creaks, springs and slams.
Featuring the cult hits "Fun For Me" and "Night For Day", Do You... also showcases a bunch more bewitching records, from the Os Mutantes sounding "Lotus Eaters", the sultry "Dominoid", the drum & bass kick of "Butterfly 747" and the silly funk of "Killa Bunnies". It's a rare and genuinely entertaining album. --Paul Sullivan (Review copyright Amazon.co.uk)