Keep Shelly In Athens - In Love With Dusk/Our Own Dream (CD, Vinyl LP)

Bah, I'm admitting my ignorance left, right and centre today aren't I. First off I had to admit that I'd not heard Led Er Est before, now Keep Shelly In Athens, who have here compiled their first two vinyl EPs onto a single plastic compact CD disc for your listening convenience.

Anyway, what these lads and lasses do is make relaxing synthpop which combines bright and breezy '80s pop stylings (think Kim Wilde meets Saint Etienne, maybe?) paired with dubby, blurred summery production which falls somewhere between Balam Acab and Morcheeba. It heads out into quite pumping house territory in places too, notably with the early '90s diva-isms of 'Cremonia Memories', but when they take it down a notch it's more like weird submerged smooth jazz, which at its worst excesses is a little bit Kenny G but is generally used tastefully. 'In Love With Dusk' takes us on a gentle, submerged dub-reggae journey which is surprisingly effective.

So overall this is a curious mix of synthpop, techno, house, lounge-jazz, Balearic chillout and muddy modern production techniques, and never really sits still for particularly long. If you're into stuff like M83 and Clams Casino, you'll probably find stuff to like here too.