[Internasjonal]

With a veritable glut of disco-tinged tracks raining down on 2009 like The Weather Girls’ beefy protagonists, it would have been easy to pass much of it off as sound-alike twaddle, and of course within any popular music trend it would be fair to do so. The Mole’s scant few releases last year showed he was in no trouble of falling into that camp though, as is the case with this collaboration of sorts with Guilty Pleasures. It’s hard to say how much of a hand the producers behind Guilty Pleasures (including Tyger Dhula and Danuel Tate of Cobblestone Jazz) played a part in these two tracks, sounding as they do like vintage works from The Mole, though their credits are listed so we can only assume that input was shared.

“Family” is the more straight up dance floor cut of the two, the slap bass forging a well-worn but no less funk soaked groove throughout the track, while a small disco-string orchestra tease out sophisticated drama from their instruments. Complimented by Rhodesy tickles and incidental melodies, “Family” remains a fairly light affair, never quite reaching fever pitch, though still capable of inducing a good amount of starry-eyed mirror ball gazing. “Rotation” takes a more underhanded approach to the groove, working out a deep, throbbing bass line, with muted, filtered chords playing out along the top of it capped off by spacious, organic congas. Its slow moving tempo grinds the groove into your head insidiously, eventually leaving you with a head nodding, closed eye, disco pout rippling across your face in time to the beat of the drum. Lovely gears from The Mole and here’s to more of them in 2010.