Out already in Japan – UK release is September – there’s a contoured 1990s clubby soul vibe with organic sounding beats and samples somehow emerging from the wash, a crackly noir-y feel to ‘All Came Good’ just for one turning into something to get the groove on.

Gold of My Own, GOMO as they’re also known, the initials seem to work better – singer Vanessa Freeman whose confident sound falls somewhere in between Yvonne Yanney and Jhelisa – and producer Chris Pedley, fulfilling the Geoff Wilkinson role maybe, run close to acid jazz or even chunks of the 90s Dorado sound.

The track gaining most repeated play on marlbank’s geriatric wheels of steel over the last few days is the very loose self-deprecatingly titled and actually very inviting ‘Same Old Groove’ cropping up at the half way mark... there’s a lovely sunny acoustic guitar and orchestral feel unfolding against splashy handclaps strictly on the beat to begin... lyrics that work while sung but don’t really reward writing down [hey there sugar/where have you been?] in the vibratro-warm vocal line from Freeman [is it my recollection/of the dreams you have made?] but the hooks are there. It comes to a boil within the extended laidback vamp revolving around the time after time I feel I’m getting stuck in the same old groove message. ‘We Are One’ above is the opener, a frantic scenesetter distraction pulsing with unknown intent.

There’s a good deal going on that rewards lots of listening and given a following wind a nudge towards the dancefloor. Pretentious it’s not and there’s a lot of taste involved. Even old school drum ’n’ bass feeds in on ‘Out of My Hands,’ a Yusef Lateef-like horn wafting in from a different planet.

Issued on the Fish Legs label ***1/2