PRE-ORDER: This item will be shipped with the aim to deliver on release day.
Release Date: 27 June 2025
Label: Gare Du Nord
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 619091684480
Genres: Rock Alternative
Description
Michael Warren, formerly Ziggy Heroe, protagonist in YBA artist Harland Miller's rite of passage novel Slow Down Arthur, Stick To Thirty presents Mariocki, the follow up to 2021's enigmatic Untold Tales of Ziggy Heroe, his balancing act between being both a character in fiction and an actual person remaining undisturbed.
Named after an obscure and possibly fictitious character from '60s cult spy TV show Man In A Suitcase, Mariocki extends Warren's eclectic metier of songcraft and the idiosyncrasy of his musical influences. The rehabilitation of lounge is well underway but Warren dives far deeper, into a world where Andy Williams is king, Julie Andrews respected, Carmen McCrae adored and Dick van Dyke sits, naturally, alongside David Bowie. In which canonical rock references are rarely spotted yet, when they are, turn out to be Deep Purple. Welcome to a cornucopia of apparent contradictions.
The album's darkest cut, the neo-Brechtian and Man Who Sold the World influenced tale of murderous northern yobbery 'What Casper Did', opens proceedings only to be chased away by Edwin Astley's charmingly civilised tea room dance, 'You're The One For Me', and the Astley influenced courtly glances of 'Come, Guinevere', replete with Herb Alpert styled flugelhorn solo. Warren evokes a languid yet dissonant emotional stasis in Alex North and Sammy Cahn's late '50s film title track 'The Long Hot Summer' and sources a lamenting love match in a woodwind rich, brooding nocturne version of Carmen McCrae's 1967 torch song, 'This Year'. The quizzically Kinks guided gentle lament of 'Dust' swaps moods with the relaxing-cat stretch of 'Reba', channelling arch-crooner Andy Williams and toying with the gentler side of Bobby Vee. Written in legendary '80s York nightclub The Blue Shed, the carefree, earworm-crazy, van Dyke tribute that is 'Didja?' delights in an unashamed collision between Mary Poppins and Deram period Bowie. Slipping into espionage territory title track 'Mariocki' treads a wary, Johnny Cash informed, path of hyper-dramatic spy paranoia, contrasting with the brass heavy, action sequence bravado of uber-'60s 'The Norman Way Theme'. Unlikeliest of all, sitting alongside a stripped down, de-glammed, reading of the Thin White one's 'Lady Grinning Soul' is a non-bombastic, surprisingly reflective, take on Deep Purple's classic rock ballad 'Soldier of Fortune'.
Mariocki, led by Michael Warren's expressive baritone voice, features the talents of producer Keiron Phelan (Peace Signs, State River Widening) and arranger James Stringer (Peace Signs, Hilbert Space) with indie luminaries Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge, ex-Death In Vegas) and Giles Barrett (The New Starts, Moebius Delta ).
With cover art by Linda Ingham Power, containing multiple cognoscenti ciphers to 1960's British spy television.
Tracklisting
Ben Reed
Willie Gibson
Papernut Cambridge
Andrew Rumsey
Richard Davies & The Dissendents
Extradition Order
Papernut Cambridge
Papernut Cambridge
