Gideon Conn – Take It All

On paper, Take It All shouldn't work, and for the most part it doesn't. The entire record sounds painfully amateurish, but there's no disguising that this is part and parcel of Gideon Conn's lo-fi appeal. His likeable nature and pleasant naivety should lend his music a generally benign reception, but no matter how hard you try, this is a hard record to enjoy.

Conn himself is a gift to mankind: he performs shows at care homes out of the goodness of his heart, and seems genuinely excited at the sights and sounds of everyday life. His music suits his personality completely: overly-animated but always heartfelt, even in its humour, and its genre-hopping, eccentric cross-section of hip-hop, children's music and traditional folk influences. Unfortunately, his execution is completely cack-handed, from the bland cover, to the lyrics, to the music itself. In terms of Conn's contribution to Manchester's hip-hop legacy, he's more MC Tunes than Virus Syndicate.