Although he's previously released one album (last year's "Tomorrow"), North Londoner MATT HARDING was entirely an unknown quantity around these parts until recently when his superb second album "Commitment" first dropped onto the W&H stereo.
But then again, Matt's not the sort of chap to go screaming for attention from the rooftops, and "Commitment" instead exudes the kind of quiet, long-distance magic the title alludes to and the more you immerse yourself in it, the more it gently beguiles.
Despite the low-key premise of most of the tunes, Harding has drawn comparisons with notables as unlikely as The Sonics and Andy Wetherall, and while such references here would tend to leave this writer with a rather furrowed brow, it's certainly true that eclecticism is the watchword, and it's also worth noting that Matt's equally at home whether he's attacking lo-fi experimentalism or gentle, undulating pop.
Via a barely audible affirmation of love ("Don't care what they said they'd do, 'cos I'll be the one who's here for you"), "What I Meant To Say" is a mere whispered slip of a track and a fine intro to Matt's introspective world, casting him almost like an updated Nick Drake: a comparison that also springs to mind when considering Harding's gentle, passive vocals which quietly frame tunes such as "Positive" and "Afternoons In December," though this latter is also reminiscent of a less tortured, Anglophile take on Elliott Smith's sound circa his eponymous second outing.
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Electronica and dub are equally surely touchstones round Harding's house too, though. For instance, on "Flint", he marries burpy electronica with heavily reverbed guitar to great effect, while on "Two Ways", he conjures something akin to State River Widening's sound with a lovely low-key bassline, samples and a distinct dubby drift.
And he can deal with pop - of sorts - ably when he so chooses. "Leave It Up To You", for example, features a dreamy bassline and New Order-style melodica sparring with bouncy beats and both "Shame" and "Come My Way" demonstrate how much inspired mileage can be wrung from cheap beatboxes and the simplest of acoustic guitar figures. When the requisite soul's present and correct, of course.
And there's the rub, for although any idiot can fart around with such cheap and cheerful organic-meets-electronic ingredients these days, there are few who achive such a freshness and sound quite so resonant as Matt Harding does throughout "Commitment."
"I used to wonder why you came to my door," Matt muses innocently during "Shame." I would have thought the answer obvious: subtle genius lies therein.
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