Vert
Some Beans & An Octopus

Well, when I saw the cover of this album, I thought that if I were a girl, I would easily fall in love with this (unfortunately) unknown Vert: first of all because he is a musician (and he's good), and then at first glance he immediately suggested a perfect synthesis between Justin Timberlake's handsome TV face and the intellectual and mature charm of Michael Stipe. But I'll close this aesthetic parenthesis...

Who the hell is Vert?

Vert (whose real name is Adam Butler) is a truly remarkable and highly talented English musician and singer, now settled in Cologne: starting with electronic music from the distant Warp school, with this, his latest album for now, he arrives at the shores of a skewed singer-songwriter pop. Something that can sound like a genuine and disorienting crossover of Tom Waits, cLOUDDEAD, and Beck-like catchiness.

A few splashes of electronics remain scattered here and there throughout the album (Andi Toma of Mouse On Mars is a friend of ours and an assiduous collaborator, even in this Some Beans & An Octopus), but the dominant sound is live with the piano taking center stage, complemented by a very swing attitude. Almost a modern reinterpretation of the quintessential mixed genre: ragtime. It starts with two excellent standards that mix rap, swaying jazz, and a significant communicative urgency: the espionage-like Gretchen Askew and the hectic Velocity. As it unfolds, this album shows infinite facets: the very tender and perfect lullaby October, the mysterious and fascinating The Familiar Girl… Yrs sounds like Subtle, who were given a new piano and fell in love with it.

But between one stroke of genius and another, a spontaneous (positive) doubt arises: could we be facing the most accredited heir of his slovenly majesty Tom Waits?