Get Back Guinozzi: Carpet Madness

This quirky pop record comes from London-based Eglantine Gouzy who adds vocals, percussion, and electronics to tracks composed by Fred Landini on guitar, rhythm box, and a single keyboard in the South of France. The result is bubblegum exotica, falling somewhere between Tom Tom Club without its funk, the Slits minus the raw aggression, and Young Marble Giants on a beach vacation.

Get Back Guinozzi’s Carpet Madness, an enjoyably “up” record, enchants more than it irritates. Of the standout tracks, “Sick” brims with fabulous guitar rhythms and drowsy electronics that gel so well the spunky female singing might as well be jabbering a shopping list for all we care. “L.A.” is similarly affecting, a lovely minimalist groove with bass parts played on guitar. “Personal Lodger” is almost as if mid-period New Order hired Bjork with instructions to temper the histrionics. A lovely breather from these well-chamfered rhythms comes with “I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone,” which lurches gently into territory similar to the Dutch group Berntholer at its very best; a shimmering delight with aching, breathless vocals, and languid guitar parts. The only downside is Get Back Guinozzi’s pointless version of “Police and Thieves,” which moves the song’s journey from Junior Murvin’s relevant social commentary via the Clash’s self-conscious “rebel” posture to a sterile, bouncy cover song entirely devoid of its original meaning.