Adem - Love and Other Planets (Domino)

For those not aware of Adem, then may I refer you to the soundtrack to the bleak British revenge flick Dean Man's Shoes where his offering Statued gave a fairly comprehensive hint at what this album's all about. He has a penchant for an oriental feel to his songs and gives that full rein here. It suits the lyrical theme of "space, cosmic things, and people", which doesn't make him sound like the brightest spark does it, but Love and Other Planets has a basic childlike charm. Xylophones, bells, stop-start shuffling rhythms, sparsely picked guitar and silence are used to create the far eastern soundscape around which Adem can breathe his full-of-wonder lyrics.

The album sits fairly neatly in two camps. Firstly there are the songs, and secondly there are the. . . well. . . remember when TV programmes used to crash, and the announcer would sheepishly offer up an excuse and introduce some light music whilst engineers legged it hither and thither behind the scenes to get the show back on air? Well, half the tracks here are the very light music that they would use in such situations on Taiwanese television. As such they feel very much like fillers.

Adem's more song-y song-writing however, more than makes up for this. Something's Going to Come is warm and uplifting, X is For Kisses is like falling asleep in a cloud and These Lights Are Meaningful even approaches sing-a-long-ability and sees Adem reach something like passionate urgency - "we have a mission here".

That the album splutters out with the funereal paced Human Beings Gather Round is to be expected given the inconsistent nature of the record as a whole. There's enough here to suggest that Adem will be capable of a spell-bindingly charming collection soon, Love and Other Planets is not quite the intended inter-stellar dream.

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