Paul Vickers and Friends – Nest of Knickers

Like the shows at which it will be sold, Paul Vickers’ latest album offers a lot of variety. Previously-unreleased Dawn of the Replicants tracks sit alongside newly-written spoken word pieces and experimental musical slithers (‘songs’ seems an overly formal description for some of these oddities), making Nest of Knickers boldly incohesive but fun to dip in and out of.

The storytelling passages are particularly captivating; full of grotesquery and invention, they rub awkwardly against accessible songwriting like Yabba Yabba (a Replicants cut that’s probably the most conventional thing here). Indeed, awkwardness seems integral to Vickers’ mischievous comedic project, and though there’s an unshakeable sense that an in-character monologue’s natural home remains the stage – where the eccentricities have room to puff out their lungs – the results are always intriguing. Vickers will host accompanying 'wonky cabaret' Twonkey’s Kingdom throughout this year’s Alternative Fringe: on the strength of this exemplar, we’d recommend a swatch.