Skyline

Formerly one half of electronic duo The Vivid, Séan Quinn is certainly well connected in his new guise as a solo artist. Work with the Penguin Café Orchestra and Steve Hillage led him to sign with UK label E.G., home to Brian Eno and Robert Fripp amongst others. All impressive stuff certainly but, as always with these things, immaterial when it comes to donating an hour or so of your time to an album. And the problem is that Skylines is a long listen. It might see Quinn literally push all the right electronica buttons but the truth is it isn’t very interesting. The sound of the underground it may be yet it is also the sound of music made on a computer and although accomplished in itself, glides by without any real warmth or character. There’s a feeling of something half finished, as if the music here needs something else to complete it and it is perhaps no surprise that Quinn’s work has often been used in TV and film, as it works perfectly in the background yet struggles when thrust onto centre stage itself. The spectre of those who have gone before hangs heavy and it’s hard to fathom where they end and Quinn begins. There’s nothing here that really roots it in 2005 and thus Skylines is ultimately a timeless kind of record, although not in a good way.