Dam Mantle

Brothers Fowl, Notown Records ***

Glasgow’s electronic scene is flourishing, if its recent alumni are anything to go by. Yet young electronic producers are ten- a-penny these days. So what makes Tom Marshallsay (aka Dam Mantle) so different? There’s a sense that the 22-year-old Kent-born, Glasgow-based art student is still feeling out his boundaries, as much of this full- length debut falls off the page with its jumbled profusion of ideas. Lifting’s looped clarinet sample is more irritating than innovative, while the unsettling title track comes across purely as an effort to show off. Yet when the right elements coalesce, the results are both innovative and thought-provoking, as heard on RGB and the offbeat Spirit, which whips a jazz-flecked track into a dizzying, disorienting tailspin.

A mixed bag of thrilling ideas and half-formed thoughts; let's see what comes next. dammantle.com

Download: Spirit, RGB