Electric Guest
Album: Mondo
Label: Because Music
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.electricguest.com

You know those 'great ideas' you have around three in the morning? You know, the ones that make perfect sense in the moment of conception, but in the cold hard light of day look completely silly. Time was the record business used to be full of them - bands that all the right ingredients for greatness, except the magic; singer songwriters who should have been massive but never got going; labels that looked cool but couldn't pick a hit for toffee. Some of these just needed time to mature, but many of them were clearly dreamt up after a boozy lunch in order to impress the boss.

The music industry's self-inflicted rationalisation not only means fewer chances are being taken (shame) but also there aren't so many instances of The Man trying to flog us old rope in the guise of something hot. Which makes Electric Guest a bit of a curio.

Sculpted singer Asa Taccone sure looks the part and his brother Jorma's work in The Lonely Island (file alongside MGMT, Foster the People, New Radicals etc) piqued the interest of producer-du-jour Danger Mouse who agreed to work with Asa on Electric Guest's debut.

The sound you hear is pure Danger House - from the Gnarls Barkley soul stabs of This Head I Hold to the fairground R&B of Waves and the gutsy Black Keys-ian raunch of Awake. The trouble is, all the songs sound like b-sides for more distinctive Danger Mouse projects - I imagine Broken Bells could find a use for Trouble Man, or Beck might have something to add to American Day Dream - and consequently Mondo comes over like a hit record someone forgot to pack the hits for.

It's not entirely without merit - This Head I Hold is incessant enough to remain with you for a couple of hours - but this could be a rare blot on the Danger Mouse copybook. You can't polish a turd, the wise man once told me, but you can roll it in glitter!

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk