Drum Media

Be prepared to be surprised with Love Transmitter. if you've followed Michael Cullen's career through The Hardheads and the unjustifiably ignored Watershed, this is another side of him barely hinted at in those projects. Apart from anything else, Cullen has played the majority of the instruments, with Tim Powles of The Church taking care of the drums, percussion, beats, loops and production, as well as the odd backing vocal, along with the odd guest on the odd track, like Jon Butler drumming on two tracks, and Dave Skeet adding voice here, organ there.

In some ways, this record could only have been produced in collaboration with Powles. The songs have that otherworldly quality that we've come to expect of recordings made in Powles's Spacejunk Studio, with that timeless kind of instrumental wash layered beneath and behind the voice. it works a treat with the vaguely 'dark beatlish' feel of All Used Up for instance. Cullen's subversive sense of humour comes into play on the title track too. Powles must have smiled at the line 'then she told me Kilbey was God/well I laughed at that' the metallic, restrained grind of guitar chopping and building inexorably.

Contrasting that humour is the worldweary sadness of Closer, but there's plenty of light and shade across the ten tracks, from the bounce of One is Still my Number and sarcasm of Professional Entertainers to the stumbling plea of Chinese Hammer.

References? You can hear Cullen is very much a man who came into his creative muse in the early 80s, so the references would be, i suppose, New Order or Jesus & Mary Chain, but there's Aztec Camera and The Smiths there if you want to hear it. The truth is that while artists like that may have addressed his youth, Cullen has grown into his own voice, so forget the above and just listen to that voice and discover a quietly unique talent.

Michael Smith