Quasi – Mole City (Domino)

Sometimes, all that will really do is music with balls. There’s a great Ben Harper/Charlie Musslewhite track (I’m In, I’m Out and I’m Gone) from their recent album, Get Up! which came on after I was listening to some interminably dreary (yes, well written and sung and played and all that, but…) singer-songwritery stuff. What I badly needed at that moment in time, as I edged the needle ever close to the eyeball, was music with BALLS! Boy, did those thick grey clouds part, and the sunshine did its work. Quasi do the same to me with Mole City, a sprawling mini-epic that wouldn’t be caught dead near a coffee table. It’s music that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and yet there’s plenty of thought gone into its making. Yes, this is a bit of a 24 track hotch-potch at times, kinda like their version of The Beatles White Album, but there are nuggets aplenty within its ‘grooves’. It’s music that likes a bit of distortion amidst the melodies; a bit of bar room piano amidst the chaos; music that takes chances, and often succeeds; music that takes snippets from old school glam, fuses it with good old American rock’n’roll, a simplified Stephen Malkmus even; music that is pure, focussed, elemental and fiery.

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