Mocean Worker Enter the Mowo!

• Words: Peter Nicholson
• Label: MoWo!
• XLR8R Rating: /10

A lazy listen to Mocean Worker's fourth album might dismiss it as leftover acid-jazz instrumental loops over beats. There's actually much more going on here. Blues structures, guest appearances from David "Fathead" Newman and Bill Frisell, dueling flutes courtesy of Rashaan Roland Kirk, and live playing by Franck Gauthier of Rhino°eros make it clear that MoWo didn't just dash this one off. Though there are some decidedly tepid inclusions-the monotonous "Fatback" and the melodramatic "I'll Take the Woods," to name a few-Enter the MoWo! is a deftly textured take on a sound sullied by the efforts of distracted amateurs.