Deco Child – Skinless

Alex Lloyd aka Deco Child garnered rave reviews in 2012 for early singles S&G and Pray. While S&G flirted intelligently with blistering micro-house and the kind of epic neo-synth pop hooks favoured by the likes of Solar Bears, it stood out for his swooping falsetto vocal, brought front-and-centre on his new EP.

Skinless (Part One) pairs claps, looped synth arpeggios and minimal broken beat with delicate piano and a fragile, euphoric vocal. Heartbeats is a minimal piano and strings arrangement, leading into Skinless (Part Two), which adds vocals and a subtle beat to the formula.

An Exit features a lone piano, leaving you wanting more of Lloyd's voice. Lloyd needs to exercise caution, though – with the intricate electronic beats de-emphasised, he can veer close to a too pretty blandness. [Bram E. Gieben]