LA based cheeky-chappy multi-instrumentalist; it all sounds a bit Robbie Williams to me. Fear not, though – Pop Levi (possibly not his real name) is as far removed from that perky popster as is humanly possible. The former Ladytron bassist began playing the piano at the age of three, joined a gospel choir at seven and wrote his first song at nine, and has taken a hiatus from his current project - avant garde trio Super Numeri – to record and tour his full-length solo effort now. If I were Super Numeri, however, I wouldn't be expecting him back anytime soon. The Return to Form Black Magick Party is an album as wacky and weird as its title suggests. Roping together a plethora of genres to create its own unique sound, it's an utterly addictive and terribly creative first outing. Glam rock, blues, psychedelia, rockabilly, electro and folk all perch precariously side-by-side on most tracks, with Levi's high-pitched nasal drawl suggesting vocalists as diverse as Axl Rose and Marc Bolan; and though you'll have heard a lot of tracks here done countless times, you'll have never heard them with quite as much conviction. Opener Sugar Assault Me Now is just that, a stomping assault on the senses that revolves around buzz-saw guitars and White Stripes blues-rock; Blue Honey's psych freak-out elicits hints of '60s greats like The Doors and Hendrix (complete with unembellished lo-fi solos); Pick-Me-Up Uppercut harks back to the robotic-pop of his Ladytron days, while Flirting's folky bumble takes the often-frenetic tempo down, its use of xylophone and an accompanying female vocalist's harmonies revealing an unexpectedly sweet edge to proceedings. If there's one gripe to be had with The Return to Form Black Magick Party, it's that some of the tracks are slightly overlong; but still, if this is a return to form, Pop Levi's inferior material must be inimitable. Magick.
