MLO - WIMBORNE
MLO was a music partnership between British musicians Pete Smith & Jon Tye, who had first met in Exeter during the late 70's through rival punk bands. Following their wandering in several bands and the acid house explosion in late 80's, they composed track New Generation, adopting the use of breakbeats instead of the four-on-the-floor rhythm formula. The demo was sent to Renaat Vandepapeliere, the head honcho of Belgian techno label R&S Records, and the first release was materialized in 1993; fascinated by the outer space and coming across the Manua Loa Observatory, MLO was deemed as suitable choice referring to the spatial aspect of music and as shorthand for word Mellow.
One year later, the duo was employed to create their debut album Io, which served as a soundtrack for a film of the same name, shown as live accompaniment to Pink Floyd gigs of that period. The film & album name originates from the seventh moon of Jupiter (Ιώ), which is the most volcanically active entity of our solar system.
Smith & Tye had to deliver the album in a short period of two weeks inside one of the world's most advanced multi-media studios. In return for their involvement in some tracks of Icelandic singer Ragga, they had unlimited access to the studio equipment, toying with Korg PS 3300 and an Emulator 2.
Despite the tight timeline, the result was excellent, providing a dreamlike ambient experience in space.
Io was released in 1994 by Rising High Records of the late Caspar Pound, with whom Pete Smith had worked extensively in various projects, such as The Hypnotist, Temple of Acid and Rising High Collective. Due to disputes regarding track royalties, the collaboration with the label ended abruptly and a lot of tracks, which were intended as the continuation of the debut album, remained unreleased. An additional album was released in the same year under the catering of the now defunct UK label i.t.p. Recordings. The final works of MLO were published in 1996, before its dissolution.
Fortunately, Music From Memory label curated in 2021 the compilation Oumuamua, which features a collection of previously unreleased material for the project. For more details, you may the refer to the interview of Jon Tye regarding the compilation.
In order to experience the journey, you can listen Io in full below:
MLO - IO
