New single: Mondial Toboggan turns a 1991 maritime disaster into a dance track
Mondial Toboggan releases today “Oceanos (SOS)”, the second single from their forthcoming album on Whales Records.
The story behind the track
Off the coast of South Africa, August 3, 1991. The MTS Oceanos is taking on water. The ship's captain orders evacuation and leaves. Among those who stay is Moss Hills, a musician hired to play the onboard shows. Armed with a radio and a calm he probably didn't feel, Hills coordinates the rescue operation himself. All 571 passengers survive.
Few musicians have had their finest moment mid-shipwreck. Mondial Toboggan wrote a song about it.
We reached out to Moss Hills before the release. We weren't sure he'd respond.
He did from aboard the Silver Dawn, somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and Lisbon, where he's currently working as Cruise Director. Moss Hills still sails!
He told us about that night on the Oceanos, the moment he and his wife Tracy realized the captain had abandoned ship, and that a small group from the entertainment department was suddenly in charge of saving 581 lives. He told us about the helicopters, the lifeboats that wouldn't launch, the navy divers, a magician named Julian in a Zodiac. He told us that every single person made it off alive.
Moss said the track has "a lot of mood and tension. Just like when we were sinking on board the Oceanos."
We didn't expect more than that. It was enough.
About the track
It opens like a good evening at sea: warm bass and shimmering synths. Then things drift. Everything sounds just slightly wrong. A single voice loops the SOS signal while the track sinks, almost serene. The catastrophe still looks like a party.
Alternative synth-pop with an ambient undercurrent, Oceanos (SOS) sits slightly slower and more atmospheric than the group's previous single “Turf in USA”. The closing guitar solo was handed to Adrian Edeline with a single instruction: go for it.
About Mondial Toboggan
Illegitimate child of Jean-Michel Jarre, Jean-Jacques Perrey and François de Roubaix, Mondial Toboggan emerged out of a passion for vintage synthesizers and cassette recorders.
Led by Quentin-Gary Tashdjian and Corentin Kerdraon (aka nit signed to Record Makers), they developed a unique aesthetic: the music of tomorrow composed yesterday; a nostalgic synth-pop infused with disco, with hints of TV movie soundtracks.
