Moloko - I Am Not A Doctor (2LP Translucent Blue Coloured)

Moloko - I Am Not A Doctor (2LP Translucent Blue Coloured)

Moloko – I Am Not a Doctor is the second studio album from Moloko, the Sheffield-based duo of Róisín Murphy and Mark Brydon. Released in 1998, it pushed their already unconventional sound further, mixing electronic music, house, funk and pop with Murphy's wonderfully eccentric vocals and Brydon's inventive production.

The album is best known for "Sing It Back", a track that initially made only a modest impact before the Boris Dlugosch remix transformed it into an international club anthem. Elsewhere, tracks such as "The Flipside", "Knee Deepen" and "Dr Zee" show just how difficult Moloko were to categorise, moving between dancefloor rhythms, strange electronic textures and genuinely great pop songwriting.

There is a playful, slightly surreal quality running throughout I Am Not a Doctor. Murphy switches effortlessly between soulful singing, spoken-word passages and theatrical vocal performances, while Brydon fills the background with unusual beats, samples and sounds. It can be quirky and occasionally downright odd, but that unpredictability is a huge part of its appeal.

I Am Not a Doctor captures Moloko before the wider success of Things to Make and Do and "The Time Is Now", but with virtually all the ingredients already firmly in place. Inventive, funky and unmistakably late-'90s without feeling trapped there, it remains one of the most interesting albums from a particularly creative period in British electronic music.