Cagedbaby - 'Will See You Now' (Southern Fried) Released 08/08/05

Mid-2005 and some would have us believe acts like Mylo, Vitalic and soon perhaps Cagedbaby are breathing new life into dance music, and hey, even resurrecting it. While the genre clearly never ‘died’ rendering such allusions as far from true, this should not detract away from the point that with ‘Will See You Now’, Cagedbaby (aka Brighton lad Tom Gandey) has produced a damn fine work that should earn him the eminence he deserves. Floaty electronica, dance floor-inducing housey numbers and funky-as-**** gems are all just some of the facets of this lovely debut. True, it’s hardly groundbreaking stuff - all the benchmarks and sounds are easy to source - yet boy does the man come up with a damn fine cocktail.

On early listens, it’s undoubtedly the dancier, chunkier moments of the album that shine. Armed with its huge, techy beats former single ’16 Lovers’ is an irresistible slab of dancefloor bliss coupled with camped-up lyrics “You know you love it, when I’m dressed in drag… 16 Lovers everyone is brother”. ‘Golden Triangle’ fuses eighties Dire Straits-inspired guitars with clubby beats and brilliantly naff synth keys, and ‘Disco Biscuit’ (not sure what M Gandey’s on about – taking Rich Tea into clubs perhaps?!) is sheer loved-up Prince inspired funked-up fodder.

However, more rewarding stuff is to be found in the subtler numbers. Beguiling opener ‘Hello There’ eases the listener in with its chilled out house grooves and sky-bound atmospherics. Later, the joyous ‘Berlin’ comes complete with Royksopp-esque bleepiness and dreamy vocals, while the stunning ‘Against The Wall’ is buoyed by sultry synthetic sounds and yearning vocals. It’s only the more song-based and ultimately underwhelming ‘Amplified Heart’ and the closing, piano-led repetitive march of ‘Marmalade’ that fail to impress. All in all though, this is a great effort that will be soundtracking many-a summer and beyond.