Now releasing on his own DRUT label, Kel McKeown – known to us as Kelpe – has reached his fourth and best album. The vibrant colours of the cover offer the strongest clue to the warmth of this music, which is a winning blend of extremely danceable beats, quirky asides and brightly coloured chord sequences. A lot of this warmth is down to his analogue equipment, not to mention some inventive rhythms that take their lead from hip hop and breaks but plough their own individual furrow. ‘Single Stripe’ is excellent, with a tough groove to complement its positive outlook, while ‘Outwhere’ winds up as a foot tapper with quirks, and ‘Answered’ casts a warm Balearic glow over proceedings. What really charms about this album is its human element, the feeling that although this music is electronic, there is a person behind all of it that has occasional random thoughts. All of them come out in a record that has a smile on its face from start to finish.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
