Supergroup Mantra of The Cosmos have released their new single, ‘X (Wot You Sayin?)’.
The band – comprising Zak Starkey from The Who, Oasis bassist Andy Bell, Happy Mondays stars Shaun Ryder and Bez, and, more recently, Brix Smith of The Fall and Sharna Starkey of SSHH – performed the track during their debut at Glastonbury on the Glade Stage in June.
The psychedelic number is inspired by Shaun’s schoolboy nickname “X”.
Zak – who is the son of Beatles legend, Sir Ringo Starr – said: “It’s a brilliant allegorical lyric by Britain’s Bob Dylan and velvety underground drone from Andy Bell.”
Andy commented: “It’s a pleasure to be part of Mantra of the Cosmos. Four like-minded souls who get off on the same music.”
Shaun added: “It’s a f***ing blast mate!! It’s great when we’re not all irate.”
Shaun recently admitted he got so paranoid about being poisoned by Vladimir Putin he changed lyrics mocking the despot.
The Happy Mondays frontman wrote lines poking fun at the Russian warmonger in tunes for Mantra of The Cosmos.
Shaun told Uncut magazine that even though he started off wanting to “put the boot into Putin” with his new tracks, he toned down the words after he started to get scared they could make him a target for assassination.
He said: “It started off worse than that, but we thought, ‘Let’s give this band a chance before we all get poisoned.’”
Shaun’s fears came after the 2018 Salisbury Novichok poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia – and amid warnings that Putin, who experts have said could be suffering from Parkinson’s disease, cancer and dementia, could launch a nuclear attack on the Ukraine and the West.
Dad-of-six Shaun added that instead of going down the political route, he started doing fun rhymes such as matching “laughing gas” with “working class”.
The former drug addict and party animal said about his chaotic songwriting technique: “We just press record and I get to throw a s***load of ideas down.”
He said lyrical themes have become “whatever floats me boat at the time”.
Meanwhile. Zak described Mantra of the Cosmos’ first single ‘Gorilla Guerilla’ as “a fantastic psychedelic groove from a band of misfits, outsiders and innovators”.
Shaun previously said about the group: “It doesn’t sound like the Mondays or Black Grape or Oasis or The Who, it’s what we’re doing all together.”
The group was described in a press release announcing its formation as “a dubby, electronic, 21st century Hawkwind of a band destined to be experienced through epic live performances.”