It's been four years since we last heard from our favorite fast-talking, electro-funk, party-jams beat-maker Adam Dorn a.k.a. Mocean Worker. Since then tough economics have turned tougher, smug indie bands have become smugger and raving mad religious fanatics have grown, well, raving madder. What the world could use in these troubling times is some good ol' fashioned, happy days are here again, ass-shaking grooves. Mocean Worker - who's built a reputation for exactly that over a ten-year plus career - returns made to order with his sixth studio album, Candygram For Mowo.

From the opening salvo of 'Shooby Shooby Do Yah!' in which 1930s big band horns are met by the syncopated rattle of a tambourine, it's clear the Mocean Worker feel-good brand is intact. Joined by a wide array of special guests, including Lyrics Born, Mindy Abair, Bill Frisell, Charlie Hunter, John Ellis, Hal Willner and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, MoWo brings the funk in all shapes and sizes. Whether crossing swing era rave-ups with 70s rare groove ('Do Like Ya Like'), Les McCann meets Marvin Gaye-flavored house party, soul jazz ('Sistas & Bruthas'), North Cali hip-hop with '50s hard bop ('My Own Little World') or injecting deep house with Nuyorican rhythms ('Out There In The Random'), the beats are infectious, the hooks delectable and the attitude always cheeky.

In Mocean Worker's own words, 'These ain't good times, so why not have something that makes us feel good?' Candygram For Mowo! is indeed what our collective sweet tooth craves.