At a time when most are yearning to be tragically hip, I long for the days of weirdness. Not goofiness, mind you. Just good old fashioned weird. Primus served my needs back in the day, as did the Orb's Dr. Alex Patterson. Both groups were masters of the musical non-sequitur, and their albums were 70-minute adventures of pure aural excitement. Now Mungolian Jetset can take up that crown.

We Gave It All Away...Now We Are Taking It Back is a twodisc misadventure of sound, full of collaborations and rerubs that dabble in indie music, dub, cheeky house, psychedelia and ambient grooviness. From ECM label regular Nils Petter Molvær and space-disco producer Lindstrøm to UK fantasy makers They Came From The Stars, the guest appearances on We Gave it All Away add their own little dash of otherworldliness to the Jetset’s pungent blend. There’s a lot to grab onto here, especially with two hour-long discs, and each listen reveals a new texture, lyric, or pattern that went
previously unnoticed.

Richard Thomas