Howes – 3.5 Degrees

Delicate, sparse, occasionally transmogrifying; the debut album from Manchester-based musician John Howes is both back-lit and fugue-like, riffing upon solitary, nocturnal notions in 8-bit configuration, rather like that Commodore 64 you left running for so long it attained sentience.

Fans of the Third Eye Foundation and Aphex Twin’s more intimate moments will recognise the sense of loose, bleached-out disquiet that comes with such articulate electronica; on tracks including OYC and the almost kinky Zeroset, it’s as if you can visualise the trails of modular synth experimentation, Howes trying out different ideas to see which best fits. Overt beats don’t appear until the sixth stanza, bass conspicuous by its absence pretty much throughout, yet whilst the themes can occasionally run away with themselves through lack of definite direction or concrete dénouement, 3.5 Degrees remains an accomplished debut – still only 22, it will be fascinating to see which direction he’s headed next. [Duncan Harman]