Yet another electro pop singer song writer though? I hear you ask. I admit my music snobbery kicked into overdrive when I heard of Dan Black being compared to –gulp- Mika. I gave him a chance however, and fair play, he won me over. Anyone remember Tom Vek? Well he sounds quite a lot like him being covered by Friendly Fires (which is a very good thing). Lead track, ‘Alone’ kicks things off with a funked up bass line backed by a wall of euphoric synth, all very minimal and arty. ‘U+ME=’ follows, very beat heavy, with hints of ‘Timbaland-esque’ breakbeat production and an anthemic chorus. ‘Wonder’ provides another swooning minimal euphoria hit with an added acoustic side. So far so good. Black describes his influences as being Jay-Z and Sigur Ros, which surprisingly you can hear in ‘Ecstasy’ through his Jay-Z like hip hop beats that are hidden behind the robotic Sigur Ros like angelic vocals and flowing electro synths -although I suspect he was being marvellously ironic on his MySpace page and I’ve read into it a bit much. The album sampler finishes off on a high with Black’s cover of Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Hypnotize’ which is frankly awesome, and comprises of the beat from Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ with a choral and string backing and Black adding his version of Biggies vocals over the top. Also check out his new single ‘Yours’ with another minimal funk bassline and the standard beep, squeaks and samples, like a soundtrack to a walk through Hoxton (although it doesn’t reach the Nathan Barley arty pretentiousness territory it threatens to stray into). Dan Black’s pulled it out of the bag emerging into a genre already massively oversubscribed and unoriginal and actually making a pretty impressive, eclectic and exciting debut album, let’s just hope the hype machine doesn’t ruin it all.