Woo

***WOO are brothers MARK and CLIVE IVES, who in the 1980s made a pair of addictively appealing yet largely unknown records. Their second, It’s Cosy Inside, released in 1989, qualifies as some of the most electronic organic music ever made. We hearken back to a friendlier time, the 1970s, when WOO first began recording their relaxing and mysterious mood music, using electronically treated acoustic instruments without pretension, creating a sort of pop music for another universe. This is not to say that WOO were, are, or ever could be precious—far from it, in fact! But it is singular, in the mode of Neu!, Fela, and Ashra—a distinctive beat instantly recognizable to those in the know, and enjoyable by all. WOO have made music for more than 35 years now, much of it specifically designed for healing and meditation, while somehow entirely sidestepping the creative vortex of modern new age music. WOO aren’t distinctly any one thing, but we’re certain you’ll be hard pressed not to enter into a happy and somewhat mysterious meditative state upon listening to It’s Cosy Inside. The album’s original publisher Independent Project Records put it best in their press release: “It’s Cosy Inside is as appropriate a title as could be for this collection of playfully unique instrumentals... Only Mark and Clive Ives, as WOO, seem to be able to effortlessly combine elements of English Folk 
Music, Jazz, Electronic Experimentalism, bits of playful easy listening, and now in this latest release, an occasional electronic reggae shuffle. Their music is fun, serious, adventurous, smoky, eerie, pretty, uplifting, a beehive of activity, joyful, and loving. It’s Cosy Inside takes you there all in one snug package.” (STREET DATE - 10/09/2012)