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Steve Mason Presents The Romance Of Unknowing (Two-Piers)
Brighton label and compilation specialists Two-Piers’ latest release measures up to a highlight of their catalogue, Richard Norris’ psych snapshot Weird Scenes From The Hangout, in the wild and wide-ranging stakes. Steve Mason, the compiler on this occasion, is best known from The Beta Band as well as a subsequent solo career; the inspiration behind The Romance Of Unknowing, he says, is a club in Dunfermline called The Kronk, which Mason frequented in his youth and where a DJ called Lel Palfrey played boundary-breaking hip-hop, reggae and house sets.
Palfrey’s approach clearly left its mark on Mason. On The Romance…, we have the Prodigy remix of Method Man’s ‘Release Yo’Delf’ nudging up to the deep soul sounds of The Staple Singers. There are also choice cuts by a wide range of artists that slot into different genres: the London punk sound of The Snivelling Shits, the pop-funk of Bobby Conn, prog rocker turned crooner Demis Roussos, new wavers Flash And The Pan and the smooth house of St Germain, to name only five.
Listening to this collection is the equivalent of walking into a bar and being completely sidetracked by the tunes you are hearing; as such, it’s a welcome distraction from this month’s relentless rain and reports of corruption and sleaze. The Romance Of Unknowing is a cleverly compiled listening experience that’s all the better for kicking musical boundaries and elitism into touch.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
