Patrick Kelleher - You Look Cold

Barking like Ian Curtis, wailing like Natasha Khan, murmuring like Samuel Beam, echoing like Bradford Cox - young Irishman Patrick Kelleher makes plenty of informed tributes across his debut album, all in his own demur manner. A reverb heavy antidote to the rash of crisp laptop singer-songwriters, this collection of aural scribblings sounds lovingly recorded on a tape 8-track, distant, hazy flavours enhanced by the hiss, flat ambience and that wonderful album title. Comprised largely by toy keyboards and basic drum beats, there is nothing kitsch about this, as the resulting songs come to overshadow the method. No two tracks sound the same, and as his music recalls each of the above names, one does wonder if this eclecticism will serve to obscure his hyperactive focus. Then again, when these songs speak for themselves, with such gentle wonder and warmth, it almost doesn't matter.