Music Review

22 November 2008 10:19 BST

Lord Skywave: Lord Skywave

Universal, June 9th.

In a nutshell...

Diverse. Soulful. Nostalgic. Peculiar. Truthful.

What's it all about?

Lord Skywave - the rouse of Simon Lord - is centred upon his father's rare synthesiser of the same name, and that's an important facet of a screwball piece. The LP cannot easily be boxed, as tea-garden plaintives rest unfathomably close to broken beat crunches and throat-bulging bass.

If anything, the record is probably too short, although its brevity allows the jigsaw parts to slot together without much visible glue. And here Simon enlists soul singers, hazy summertime samples and even his own nan, the late Madeleine Dring, herself an accomplished and successful performer.

Throughout the emphasis ranges from fear, games and (possibly?) love, but viewed from a shrouded and irregular angle. For a musician who admits he has been influenced by both dubstep and cats, this isn't greatly surprising.

Who's it by?

While you may think you haven't heard of Lord Skywave, check yourself, because he used to front up indie-disco almost heroes Simian. Their Never Be Alone got mangled by Justice into an electrified, electrofied singalong classic, probably by itself enough to secure the French act's rise to prominence.

After the disbandment of Simian, Lord set up a new computer-savvy outfit called the Black Ghosts, a collaboration with fellow genre-crusher DJ Touche. While in the past the musician has skirted the mainstream - indeed Simian's La Breeze fronted a high-profile car ad - the Skywave album ploughs new ground again.

As an example...

"It's true what your momma said, those beasts under your bed." - My Name is Lord Skywave

"Never fall in love at first sight... maybe I need to." - Maybe I Need To

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Simian's aforementioned breezy bit of pop may have been plastered all over Peugeot, yet Lord Skywave is elsewhere on the abstract record shelf. Nevertheless, if Amy Winehouse managed to conquer the Grammys with her own brand of nu-soul, then who knows?

What the others say

"Simon's own songs explore a kind of whimsical Britfunk, nestling nicely into the gap between Jamie Lidell and Hot Chip, but they mesh with surprising fluency." - Fader

"Most of the grooves are of the strut-tastic sort that go straight to your shoulders, which is cool because you're an indie fan and you can't dance." - Matt Fernand, BBC Online (about Simian's We Are Your Friends)

So is it any good?

Lord wears a trough-load of influences upfront, brave and willing to make mistakes or occasionally bloat himself with musical sources. My Name is Lord Skywave, an obvious starting point, shows hints of seventies television drama synths and stadium-rock sized drums. Holding nothing back, this blends into Slow Movement, a kind of rural, cyclical Satie-like instrumental, before you can emit a HOW? and notice the transition.

More similar territory follows, such as Idyll, a faster Jazzanova-informed diva splurge, the reggae sidestep sunshine of Half Forgotten, the Columbo melodies playing out through Back in the Garden and those massive, swaying drum loops again on I Am a Dead Man.

The producer doesn't get it all right, if course, although this may not be anything he can change in some instances. At junctures the crooning resembles George Michael, which in this era is dangerous ground. Everybody maybe takes the soul canvas towards the envelope marked pastiche, mocking more than embracing the disco template. Yet album killer Maybe I Need To would light up any long-player, proves Lord as a trustworthy songwriter and in a perfect age would eternally rest on the radio.

7/10

John Maher