single review: pocket featuring robyn hitchcock – “surround him with love” (fraga)

like stephin merritt producing tracks under the guise of the 6ths or jimmy tamberello’s work as dntel, the artist otherwise known as pocket (richard jankovich) seems to have spent some time digging through his record collection, putting together a list of singers and collaborators he can convince to give voice to his electronic soundscapes. it’s an impressive roster too, including luminaries such as steve kilbey of the church, craig wedren, and former throwing muse tanya donnelly.

the most curious addition to this list, though, is robyn hitchcock, a singer more comfortable in a byrds-ian setting of psychedelic, folk and country infused pop. i can’t speak to how jankovich talked hitchcock into joining up with his little variety show, but i can say that it was an inspired choice. hitchcock dips into his rarely-used lower register, sounding like an aging goth crooner. it’s slightly chilling, even when he’s repeating the very hitchcockian phrase “a reptile brain” or wrapping his cold hands around the words in the title.

the music is a fairly devilish and appealing muddle of deep house beats and razor wire guitar lines, with a lingering dark undercurrent of synthesized brambles. it appears to be aiming to shoehorn the approaches of both joy division and new order into one thick side of a 12″. jankovich gets halfway there – the “perfect kiss” like fake bongo sounds that open it and the martin hannett-esque atmospherics work fairly well together – but would have been better served going full bore in one direction or the other.