On the wrong side of a failed relationship Maurice Fulton, aka Ladyvipb, took the none-too-easy step of deciding to debut on Nuphonic with a concept album that choreographs the trauma of breaking up with the person you love.
This is usually the stuff of guitar wielding singer songwriters, rather than the subject of hip grinding dance grooves, but it's to Fulton's credit that he manages to describe his descending arc of depression and final recovery without sinking into angst ridden naval gazing.
The opening track, 'Devil You', sees wonderfully dysfunctional beat arrangements chop the underlying four four drum patterns and provide an unlikely bed for collaborator Wanda Felicia's jazz drenched vocals. Meanwhile the sub bass shudders through the track's core.
And so the musical theme is set, as Fulton continues to chop between samples and live instrumentation, crunching broken beats and sounds together like a demented DJ mercilessly flicking the cross fader between tracks and gaps that in no way could ever flow together.
The task of fitting these constituent elements together is daunting, but Fulton manages to push water up hill and ingeniously it works.
'Yesterday Has Gone' is a more conventional deep and funky four four affair, while 'You Gave Away My Everything' takes R2D2 sound effects as a melody line, somehow allowing space for Felicia's vocals while Fulton revs the beats like a motor bike.
'Please Heal Me', the album's mid way point, is where Fulton hits the emotional floor. But while he may be describing the lowest point of his break-up, artistically he hits one of the album's peaks.
A brooding, deep paced track that whispers with electrical intensity, the sounds negotiate with each other like the ramblings of a desperate man's tormented mind. Which is, of course, exactly what they're meant to do. Beautiful.
'The Wiggie Bop' splutters in with broken beats before adding a boogie bass line which cuts to a cicada festooned prairie, before spluttering back to the broken beats and settling on a straight four four.
Finally 'Life With Denise' completes the story with a joyous and sublime conga work-out underpinning a grand piano.
Maurice now lives in Australia, possibly with Denise and hopefully he is ecstatically happy. On the strength of 'Stories' alone, he deserves to be.
by Ben Osborne