★★★★☆
Uncanny valley: the phenomenon where a robot looks and sounds just like a person, but not quite – creeping out actual blood-and-bone humans.
Is Dinner a human or a sophisticated android? It’s hard to say. Psychic Lovers is Anders Rhedin’s debut album, following some EPs and a guided self-hypnosis tape (yes, really). It sounds like it was released in the late ’80s, laden with synthesisers, electro tom-toms and every kind of squeak and squawk you can find on an old Casio keyboard.
But his voice. It’s deep and carries a heavy Danish accent. It’s semi-robotic and faintly ridiculous. When on the euphoric retro thumper ‘Turn Me On’ he claims, “I’m just a normal guy, with a normal life,” you can’t help but wonder – isn’t that just what a cyborg would say?
Nevertheless, this automaton has been programmed with real feels. Following the rolled-up-blazer-sleeved car-chase soundtrack ‘Cool As Ice’ and dystopian synth-scape of ‘The World’, on ‘Wake Up’ he “want[s] to wake up in the morning with you”. A female voice – think a sexy Siri – joins him to translate his lines into emotionless, matter-of-fact French. It can love.
Is it tongue-in-cheek? An ironic genre parody? Is that his actual voice? Who cares – this voyage into the valley is a whole lot of fun.
Psychic LoversbyDinner is out now throughCaptured Tracks/Remote Control.
