At last, I say to myself, something physical. Not many people send in compact discs these days even though there are undoubtedly far more vitamins and minerals in that spinning silver thing than there are in any streaming platform. The question, I would therefore suppose, is whether “Mind Control Radio” by Station Nord could actually improve my wellbeing.
“Mind Control Radio”, as it turned out, is something of an oddity in these locked to the loop days as the ten songs contained on the silver spinning thing do something somewhat alien to the precisely programmed world of today. They ramble. These songs simply ramble in that languorously laidback way that any detour into the dub genre will bring to the musical party and, as if to prove that it would be wrong to regard all that you might hear as merely unfocused, this album’s casual pacing and presentation instead contribute to its hypnotic effect as if the underlying plan was always to convince the listener without overwhelming anybody’s ears. Stylistically, there are quite a few diversions with, as examples, a summer evening sentimentality infused into the gloriously mellow “Between You and The Sea” and even some strong jazz funk influences creeping into “Million Miles” fuelled by Alan Cochrane’s cocktail bar saxophone. Perhaps surprisingly, even the presence of longtime hard hitters like Jonzip McNeill and Joe Whyte in the cast list doesn’t add anything in the way of rough edges.
That said, and despite Station Nord being quite clearly positioned at right angles to the fashions of today, “Mind Control Radio” is still eminently wearable in a wide variety of social situations and, if you should find yourself tripping down the highway of life, this album might well make you feel just a little bit better. I can roll with that.