Mozart Estate

Mozart Estate is a further installment in the decades-long musical journey of Lawrence, the mononymous iconoclast responsible for some of the finest, most inscrutable pop music of his time. Formerly operating under the name Go-Kart Mozart, this project focuses on bubblegum-sticky novelty pop whose earwormy melodies are balanced by the gritty, sardonic, sometimes moving topics of the songs. Whether singing about the failings of capitalism, Record Store Day, or soda pop, Lawrence's monochromatic croon is a perfect match for the boogie piano, junkshop synths, popping bass, or heavenly vocal harmonies that the songs are built around on 2023's Pop-Up! Ker-Ching! And the Possibilities of Modern Shopping. It's all a far cry from the post-punk aesthetic of Felt or the glam rock of Denim, but it's another perfect showcase for the wit and wisdom of one of pop's great eccentrics. Lawrence spent the '70s and '80s fronting the atmospheric guitar pop band Felt, who drew much inspiration from Television, and then after a short break to recalibrate, returned to the pop music fray with the group Denim. Over the course of two albums (1992's Back in Denim and 1996's Denim on Ice) Lawrence and friends produced a bubblegummy strain of '70s glam rock whose sing-along hooks belied the oft-biting tenor of its lyrics. Near the end of that endeavor, the group shifted to making music inspired by novelty acts of the '70s like Lieutenant Pigeon and Chicory Tip as the title of the 1997 odds and sods collection Novelty Rock makes clear. After some all-too-typical wrangling with record labels led to the disbanding of Denim, Lawrence chose to further explore novelty pop with Go-Kart Mozart. Featuring a sound that was tinny and giddily cheap sounding as it mixed silly synth pop, crunchy glam, and sly socal commentary, the project's first album Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture was issued in 2000 on Lawrence's own label West Midlands Records (which existed under the Cherry Red umbrella.) After a five-year wait during which Lawrence oversaw the re-release of the entire Felt catalog and began work on various projects, Go-Kart Mozart's second album, Tearing Up the Album Chart, finally saw release. The album was again split between novelty and commentary and, as a bonus for fans of Denim, contained tracks from the group's long-shelved third album titled Denim Takes Over. After another long wait for more recordings, during which Lawrence was filmed for a documentary on his life and career that detailed his struggles and his genius (Lawrence of Belgravia, directed by Paul Kelly), Go-Kart Mozart reappeared in 2012 with a single (a cover of Roger Whittaker's hit "New World in the Morning") and an album (On the Hot Dog Streets,) which was co-produced by longtime Lawrence ally Brian O'Shaughnessy. The record was the most focused work they'd done to date and featured quite a few songs repurposed from the unreleased Denim album Denim Takes Over. Soon after it came out, Lawrence and his musical partner Terry Miles, whose collaboration dated back to Denim's 1996 record Denim on Ice, began work on a new record. It took longer than they expected, eventually seeing the light of day in early 2018. Titled Mozart's Mini Mart, the album added some music hall and electro pop to their usual junkshop glam-meets-novelty pop sound. It also featured heavy contributions from bassist Rusty Stone and production by Papernut Cambridge head honcho Ian Button. Following this release, Lawrence changed the name of the band to Mozart Estate and after another long wait, released the single "Record Store Day" in 2021 and "Relative Poverty" in 2022, then in 2023 unleashed Pop-Up! Ker-Ching! and the Possibilities of Modern Shopping, another hilariously cutting, completely original, mix of novelty, melody, and commentary.
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