Album Review: Conrad Keely - Original Machines

This first solo foray from founding ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead frontman Conrad Keely is naturally ambitious and tackled with unbridled assurance.

Ideas flow freely over 24 eclectic tracks that veer from synth-pop through subtle psych to folk and blues, with an undercurrent of restrained rock 'n'roll never too far from the surface.

Conceived while travelling around his adopted Cambodia, there's an Eastern tint to proceedings, Keely's dreamy detachment washing over his textured introspection with plenty of weirdness buried in the margins — and occasionally pushed up front — but it somehow all hangs together nicely.