Album Review: Slow Place Like Home, When I See You... Ice Cream!

Following on from 2015's widely acclaimed Romola, this is the second album from Irish electro producer/musician Keith Mannion (who records as Slow Place Like Home). Written between Knather Woods in his native Ballyshannon and the beaches of the Algarve, When I See You... Ice Cream! was recorded and produced in its entirety in his bedroom studio in Donegal.

The title track is all beeps, clicks and squiggles, but some of these songs and soundscapes are genuinely soulful and uplifting. Mannion also has quite an ear for pop melodies and other tunes stick like bubblegum ('Office Dancers'). There are lyrics, but they're often indecipherable and really just there to serve the sound ("This tonic water is overstated/How does it alter your conversations?").

Exceptions include second single 'Echoes', which sees former Whipping Boy frontman Fearghal McKee crooning brilliantly: "You recall the rising of our tide?/You recall/From the small hours by your side/ You recall". Some songs here you could actually dance to, others are more for spacing out, but there's not a single dud in this collection.

This is sweet-tasting ice cream indeed... with sonic sprinkles.

8/10
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