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As a DJ, Black Grass (aka Mex) has toured the world and opened shows for Jurassic 5, Public Enemy, Portishead (apparently DJ Andy Smith is a big fan of his) and many more. Fresh from the Fat Tuesday tent at the Big Chill, Black Grass (aka Mex) has produced a brilliant second album that takes influences from all over the place but keeps the quality high.

This is exemplified by the single, ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ on which Dominique Noiret just sounds more and more stunning on every listen — an utterly unique interpretation of this pop classic.

The single also included another collaboration with the dextorous Micall Parknsun on ‘Down And Dirty’. This is one of the hip hop based tracks. Jehst turns up on ‘Lines of Defence’ which is about the currently popular theme of war. ‘Don’t Try’ is sombre as is ‘Sweet To The Taste’, which features Rider Shafique (remember the 12” ‘Rider’ on One Eye Records - there’s distant link with Megablast here).

Another reggae inspired track features Blu Rum 13 (One Self), who sounds particularly up-beat on the bouncing ‘Rest Assured’. Another one we can add to the list of reggae resurgence on Fly this summer, is the infectious ‘Oh Jah’ that features Jah Marnyah.

The opener is a little jazzy instrumental funk-samba with a touch of Mileseques trumpet — it just makes my day every time I hear it. There’s a couple more instrumentals, ‘Nemesis’ funks and boogies while ‘The Floating Wizard’ and the closing track, ‘Nobody Knows (It’s Sunday)’ are a couple of keyboard dreamers.

For soul fans, Okou (Five Corners Quintet / Teddy Rok Seven) sings on the eighties styled ‘So Many Ways’ which could be another single (big strings again).

No less than Will Quantic says he loves this album and you can put me down on that list. Mex is book to play Rob da Bank’s Bestival Festival next month so expect to hear loads of this album on the Blue Room shows and everywhere else for that matter.

Hectic Mix nominations: I love ‘em all.

Reviewed: Black Grass - Don’t Leave Me This Way (Catskills) Cat. No. Release Date: 29th August 2006
Tracklisting:
1 Lucha Contra De La Injusticia (6:49)
2 Oh Jah feat. Jah Marnyah (4:10)
3 Lines Of Defence feat. Jehst (3:41)
4 Nemesis (4:09)
5 Don’t Leave Me This Way feat. Dominique Noiret (5:45)
6 The Floating Wizard (3:08)
7 Down And Dirty feat Micall Parknsun (4:24)
8 So Many Ways feat. Okou (4:59)
9 Rest Assured feat. Blu Rum 13 (3:16)
10 Don’t Try feat. Maylay Sparks (4:07)
11 Sweet To Taste feat. Rider Shafique (4:52)
12 Nobody Knows (It’s Sunday) (4:34)

Links:
www.bestival.net
www.black-grass.com
www.catskillrecords.com
She Said feat. Dominique Noiret XFM Session of ‘Black Leather’ , ‘Honesty’, ‘Texas Chain Store Manicure’ and ‘The Devil In The Man’
And We Danced - Classics ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ [Short History of the key recordings]
Thelma Houston - Don’t Leave Me This Way @ Lyrics On Demand