Ribbons – a.k.a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Jherek Bischoff - may hail from Seattle, but on Royals he is surely paying tribute to the music of Oxford, England - specifically everyone’s favourite band they don’t actually listen to, Radiohead.

With its pulsating beats and Thom Yorke-style vocals, opener ‘All Of Us’ sounds like an alternate take of Kid A’s ‘Idioteque‘, while the intro to the Bond theme in waiting ‘The Last and Least Likely’ mimics ‘Just’ so closely you half expect the first line to go “Can’t get the stink off…” On top of this Royals is bedeviled by philosophical and often sinister lyrical concerns (the concept of Automatism anyone?).

However, on tracks such as the almost bouncy ‘Tongue-Tied’ and the bizarre ‘Miu Miu‘ Bischoff spreads his creative wings, producing his own brand of weirdly wonderful orchestral pop music.Beguiling, challenging and darkly beautiful, the exceptional musicianship evident on Royals rewards repeated spins and will have listeners’ heads spinning for days on end.

Ian Sinclair