MINT ROYALE
On The Ropes (MCA)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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The Manchester, England team of Neil Claxton and Chris Baker recorded this odd little thing in 1999. I can't find much information on it, so all I can tell you is it's about an hour's worth of the strangest pop music I've ever heard, and I say that knowing full well that it really should be classified as a dance CD. The beats don't lie. But neither does the feeling of pop, which drips from the honeycomb structure of this music in the most unexpected ways, be it in the form of straight ahead pop singing over the dance beats and sound soup or be it a sudden dropout from the cacophony for a little bit of 60s twang that sounds like an alternate take of the I Dream Of Jeanie theme. There are a lot of recognizable sounds here, and I'm guessing this might be a hole in my musical education (go ahead and e-mail me because I appreciate enlightenment) that everyone but me is already hip to. If you're not, and you like it kinky, this is highly recommended.

© 2001 - DJ Johnson