Off The Beaten Track!
Wonky (Single)
Bowling Green
Now notably the frontman of his own guitar-driven lyrically careering combo Micko & The Mellotronics - who have had numerous line-up changes to date that would certainly make Pete Frame’s ears prick up; Micko Westmoreland, who also starred as Jack Fairy in Todd Haynes’s Glam rock biopic ‘Velvet Goldmine’ (1998), has taken an out of the blue opportunity to re-visit his previous incarnation as an electronic composer.
‘Wonky’ is the just-released single by Micko (forever the well-connected polymath) under his former alias of The Bowling Green.
If you were watching the video when inebriated, you could be forgiven for easily thinking that the lumbering creature depicted is a childhood throwback in the vein of ‘Sesame Street’ or depicted in a Spike Jonze noughties movie: something that is slightly disturbing but also unarguably sensual.
What is unique about the video - directed by Patrick Henry - is that it is literally ‘at one’ with the viewer/listener’s psyche - much in the same way that Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’ was in 1975.
Musically, it is a ‘butterflies in your tummy’ Sunday morning wholesome piece of electronica with smatterings of Larry Graham-like bass and the essence of Augustus Pablo amid swirling Moogs that undeniably have a life of their own. Both scintillating and infectious, but unpredictably homely as well.
The Bowling Green’s ‘Mingle’ EP was released in 1996 and reached the lofty heights of NME’s single of the week. His electronica-centric debut album proper ‘One Pound Note’ came out two years later, and was given the seal of approval by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor who put it out on his label Nothing Records in the States.
The second album ‘Fabrications’ (2002) – despite being rooted in sampling – was accompanied by musicians: multi-instrumentalist Terry Edwards; members of The Stranglers, and Les Rhythms Digitales. Several of its tracks revealed more conventional songwriting.
‘Wonky’ is the first single from the November release of the seven-track digital album named ‘Self-Titled’.
The Bowling Green - Wonky from Uumph Studio on Vimeo.
