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ACID KLAUS – STEP ON MY TRAVELATOR

The title number is quick to get you grooving with juicy synth notes, a showering of beeps and boops, and a winning hook which gets drilled into your subconscious, and while maybe a little too stretched out, Party Sized Away Day is nonetheless highlighted by Maria Uzor’s smooth and savoury voice throughout, with that helm taken over by Cat Rin afterwards as she gives us a plucky display in the boldly bopping, off the wall Bethlehem Or Bust.

Likewise, Soft Focus’ performance in Blow Your Speakers is beyond fantastic, and the track itself just keeps raising the bar higher and higher with its extremely infectious, semi-disco vibing buzz, then Maria Uzor rejoins Adrian for the party-starting Crashing Cars In Ibiza and its smashing chorus. Bad Club Bad Drugs Bad People definitely sticks out amongst the crowd with a considerably darker and grittier tone to it, boosted by the spooky, politically rife speech, but it still proves to be another banger with the bass tuned up, a thumping beat pushing it along, and an overarching fuzzy resonance

Charlotte Kemp Muhl has you curiously clinging onto her every word in the niftily odd but seducing Elevate, and the supremely banging The Three Rooms features a hell of a vivaciously vibrant pulse that is constant all the way through, and is certainly helped by Lieselot Elzinga’s enthusiastic presence. I Used To Be A DJ has a cool cybernetic colour to it, My Hats On Fire is another break away from the norm, being a quieter secluded cut more or less totally focused on Hannah Hu’s nice serenading harmonies and wistful lyrics, and that slips idyllically into Eulogy To A Quiet Life and the engaging poetic words of Maxine Peake.

Sheffield electronic mastermind Adrian Flanigan has produced crazy good results with this impressive album. While it does have a couple of rare underwhelming spots, they are vastly outdone and outweighed by everything else that does work, mainly the distinct variety between the numbers: plenty of intoxicating bangers balanced out with a few intriguing experimental songs that go off the beaten path with successful conclusions.

Acid Klaus has already gathered a noticeable following in recent times, and I’m hoping that continues to grow, because Adrian is a mighty talented fellow and it’d be lovely for his handiwork to gain a greater public exposure.

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