Album: Nathan Fake <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Drowning in a Sea of Love, BORDER COMMUNITY

Already garlanded with somewhat intemperate praise by club-scene critics lacking a proper sense of perspective, laptop synthesist Nathan Fake's debut has a certain fuzzy charm, but lacks the depth to bear out comparisons to the likes of Boards Of Canada and Sigur Ros. The closest he comes is probably "You Are Here", which has the dainty touch of the latter, but without the wordless vocals or the symphonic tendencies. In general, Fake's melodic narratives are as flat and unchanging as his native Norfolk landscape, their simple figures repeated over and over with no real development, occasionally fattened with overlaid harmony lines, but never really shifting from their starting point. Some are certainly pleasant - "Stops" employs engaging loops of breathy white noise and thumb-piano keyboard tones, and "The Sky Was Pink" sounds like Can at their most expansive, its keening melody line soaring and dipping over melancholy chords - but others are sabotaged by the tinny, primitive drum-machine sounds and lo-fi recording. The overall mood is one of aimless meandering leading nowhere in particular, a sort of casual musical daydream in need of a little discipline, or at least more melodic development.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Stops', 'The Sky Was Pink', 'You Are Here'