TOM VEK'S debut album "We Have Sound" was the coming to fruition of a playful young brainiac indulging his funkily skewhiff pop sensibilties and largely damning the torpedoes. Sometimes it backfired, but mostly it was the sound of a lovingly-customised roadster easing out into pop's aggressive autobahn and avoiding the worst of the potholes on the way.
"Nothing But Green Lights" finds Tom literally suggesting that he's run the red and ambers and got away with it in fine style. It's one of many where he indulges his Talking Heads fixation - the opening electro scrawl and disciplined disco drumming come straight outta "Once In A Lifetime" - but the rubbery, slippery bassline and Tom's dopey'n'cheeky Cockney vox (mixed REALLY BLOODY UPFRONT) are both his own wonderfully gauche creations and this tune's all the better for both. Add in some of Vek's patented, fractured guitar and some nicely tongue-in-cheek confidence ("I got a hold on what's going on/ I got my foot in the door...so to speak") and you've got a very tasty and disorienting melange indeed.
B-side "One Horse Race" is another unlikely treat. This one farts into life via the sort of growling bassline JJ Burnel might have spewed up after breakfast and skids into the sort of dirty, rhythmically-challenged skank that by rights should never work, yet does beautifully. God knows what it's all about, but when Tom belts out stuff such as "I am the silent assassin/ You are the star in your own game show" in a voice like an unholy alliance of Thom Yorke and Julian Cope then you're hooked regardless of your reservations.
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He's a clever sod, Tom Vek, and despite remaining in touch with currently overworked terms like "post-punk" and "angular", his music remains ridiculously fresh. And what's more, he's already worked out his escape route, according to "Nothing But Green Lights" where he sings: "You and I are gonna drive ourselves outta this town in a 1989 Mercedes Benz". Neat. Any room in the back for one more, Tom?
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