Tuesday 18/03/03 Vynyl, Merz @ Barfly, Liverpool

Vynyl are a classic boy/girl duo, a 21st century Yazoo if you like. A classic electro 80's soundtrack is provided by the boy side, whilst from the girl we get some soulful, almost jazzy vocals. There are some technical problems early in the set, notably in a song called Stop where everything well stops. Things are quickly sorted out though, and things continue smoothly.

Visually there isn't much happening, but they seem to be new on the block and this can easily be worked on. It did mean that the small but appreciative crowd had to concentrate on the music instead. Highlights were an eastern sounding epic that is right up there with Madonna's work with William Orbit; and the finale, which contains the best use of a Miami Vice drum fill that I've ever heard.

Who is Merz? you may ask. Well they released an album 3 years ago on Epic, and little has been heard since. They've recently re-appeared with a series of single releases limited to seven inch vinyl as the second album is prepared for release. Technically Merz is one man, Conrad Lambert. He has toured with a band before, but tonight we get the solo version - one man, a couple of guitars, a keyboard and some electronic backing.

After a quiet, almost shy introduction you can't help but notice that this guy has got a great voice. Sometimes the whooping cry of Tim Booth is apparent, but we also get the effortless soaring that James Walsh of Starsailor also does so well, and you can even spot a hint of Sting's jazzy patois in there as well. The versatility in the vocals is there in the songs too. Conrad moves from a dirty telecaster to a perfectly strummed acoustic and onto his bank of keyboards to provide a constantly evolving sound. One minute he's wailing away stomping a wah-wah wildly, the next accompanying his own heavily vocoded backing vocals with a song that prescribes sleep as the best cure for heartbreak.

This guy is very hard to pin down, but that seems to be the way he likes it. The set finishes with the acoustic folk reggae of AM (Good Morning) and while we wait for impending war, we're reminded that "the world is gonna be better, and you will see it through". Let's hope that he's right.