I've got that Foxy Feeling.

A wise man called Giorgio once told me “Jon... we no longer have seasons, only weather”. Giorgio was absolutely on the money, as per usual. Just witnessing this past weekends’ blowing a gale / cracking the flags combo is enough to cement his words into fine wisdom. Similarly, if you have glorious sunshine on your wedding day, with incongruous showers of rain, tradition has the phrase ‘somewhere a fox is getting married’ put aside specially for you.

In my own (admittedly slightly warped) world, a fox marrying a cat is expected and quite natural. It’s heartwarming to know that in the world of Moon Wiring Club, such unions are also perfectly acceptable and perhaps as inevitable as cod liver oil. Er...

I always find vinyl souvenirs of royal weddings rather chilling. They have always seemed such awkward items, with their forced conviviality and sentiment. They also serve to remind us that the royals haven’t exactly got a great track record for staying together, either.

The BBC have left behind special vinyl royal wedding recordings long ago, of course, but in some ways they’re missing a trick. Think about it; royalism has become part of the all-dominant celebrity culture, with royals falling out of high-profile nightclubs at 7am with their massive sunglasses on the wrong way round (for example), aping the celebs in much the same way as those spewing up outside Ritzy’s on a Saturday night in just about any town. So, never before has there been a more fitting time for a properly lavish royal wedding release, with all the ghastly pomp and circumstance in tow. A 12” vinyl sleeve would be the perfect format to showcase the airbrushed-but-emaciated bride hanging on to the rugged groom, all fish-finger teeth and gelled-up sharp haircut. You can just see it, can’t you?

The BBC won’t go there these days, but thankfully Moon Wiring Club are only too pleased to present their version. The front cover may be starkly different to the image I alluded to just now, but in many ways it’s actually spot-on. Check out the fox’s teeth and thousand yard stare, for one thing. Or two things. The cover gives me the same chilling feeling I get from looking at Charles & Di’s version, or the Andrew and Fergie release, but a layer of skin has been lifted from it, to show the reality underneath. The reality speaks volumes.

If you’re a fan of Moon Wiring Club’s previous offerings, you’re not going to be disappointed. Top drawer Edwardian reggae sits next to slo-mo germano-italo disco and stodgy synth samples infest the rigid gothic electro grooves, worthy of any Dr Luke fan’s attention. All this and a gas leak.

The whole package screams ‘information overload’ in the best way. There are thousands of layers to this particular onion (spread across the music, the sleeve, inner sleeve, labels, press release, sickeningly resplendent poster... argh) and no-one will ever tie everything together, no matter how hard they try.

Above all this, though, the album is all about fun. And humour. For those two reasons alone, it deserves a place in your record collection. Try it.

<< Blank Workshop >>

- Jb.