8 / 10
Time for a quick revelation? Just when you were thinking that the fractions and abstractions of left- field dance had nothing left to offer, along comes a record so fiercely intelligent, yet so lovably playful, so brightly inventive, yet so comfortably familiar that it rebuilds your faith in the power of the margins in an instant.
'Start Breaking My Heart' is the debut album from Dan Snaith, a Canadian pure mathematician, classical pianist, and mammoth Nick Drake fan. It's a record with a number of precedents; you'll hear whispers of Aphex Twin, Tortoise and Big Daddy Kane between the snappy grooves of 'Mammals Vs Reptiles' and the ketamine-addled lounge-jazz of 'People Eating Fruit'. But throughout, Snaith's fleet-footed humour, somewhere between the malicious smirk of Kid606 and - dare we say it? - the spirited ecleticism of the pre-shit Fatboy Slim elevates 'Start Breaking My Heart' above all but the best of the circuit-mangling PowerBook crew.
Snaith's point is simple. This may be machine music, he offers. But who says it has to sound robotic? 'Start Breaking My Heart' delves deep into its hard drive, and where it can't find emotions,
it imagines its own - so vivid
you'll believe they were real.
A revelation? You'd better believe it. Manitoba will break your heart. But it'll feel like a
kiss.
Louis Pattison
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