CD Review: Moke, ‘Carnival’

Monday sees the belated release of Carnival, the second album by South Londoners Moke.

The more elderly among you may remember Moke from six years ago. That’s when their first album - Superdrag - came out to critical acclaim. Since then, they recorded and released Carnival in 2001 in America. It all seemed to be going well for Moke - magazine covers, crazy praise, a high-charting first single - and then their record label went bankrupt and they split up.

Now, at last, Carnival is getting a UK release on Fruit Pie records. And it’s a good thing too. Carnival is a corker.

In America, the first track on the album - My Degeneration - reached number 17 in the R&R charts. God knows why. It sounds exactly like hairy TFI Friday-friendly growlers Reef. Never be a good thing.

Luckily for Moke, My Degeneration is nothing like the rest of Carnival.
Moke have made the sort of album you’d expect to hear drifting through
windows over and over again as you walk down the street on a blistering
day.

Today is the song that Lyla should have been, a perfect summer anthem and the pick of an album stuffed full of potential singles. Strange Days somehow manages to be breezy and muscular at the same time, I Don’t Mind could have easily fit onto Forever Changes, close your eyes and new single Slide could be the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The closest recent album to Carnival is probably the new Sterophonics album. Remember when you first heard Dakota on the radio and you thought "Hey, this is great!" before the DJ told you who it was and you went off it? This is a whole album of Dakotas. And not a monobrowed Welsh fool in sight.

Moke have made one of the albums of the summer. Their press release for Carnival says that it "could well be a strong contender for a Mercury Music Prize". And they’re not wrong. This is an easy album to fall in love with.

You can listen to extracts from Carnival here

Find the cheapest price for Carnival by Moke at Kelkoo

[story by Stuart Heritage]