Niobe - White Hats

Different from most of what's out there, and almost always interesting to listen to, but ultimately lacks whatever it is that really sets certain music apart from the common run and causes it to linger in what might be called the mind's ear (to coin a possibly somewhat unfortunate phrase). Heard bits of it playing in a record store and my attention was caught; interrogation of the store clerk produced the cd case, from which I learnt that the album's on Tomlab (which was a plus); and decided to take a chance and bring it home. It's a fractured, inchoate mix of styles - Tomlab-styled electro-pop, jazz gestures, old school funk, flashes of torch and, maybe most perceptibly, a distinct lounge sensibility. The voice in which 'Niobe' sings has been reminding me of someone for weeks now, but it's only writing these notes just now that I've been able to place it - the resemblance is to Feist (and that only because the cd's sitting on my desk right now), though Niobe's perhaps a bit more forthright, with shades of Nellie McKay, and in fact the musical style isn't a world removed from those two, either, though much more on the 'electronic' side. So this quirkiness is all well and good, but I find that the tunes aren't there - and, in the case of White Hats, there isn't enough else to make up for the lack.