Jimmy Behan Days Are What We Live In

I know very little about Jimmy Behan other than that he appears to hail from Dublin and that he creates semi-ambient electro pop in the vein of Keiran Hebden or Lemon Jelly. Of note perhaps is that this work took a year to record - between Augusts '03 and '04. That's not to suggest that Behan is lazy, but without a doubt there's a relaxed Sunday afternoon feel to the album.

We open with little electro noises, looped guitars and synthesized flutes and strings - indeed Granby Road sounds much like the aforementioned Jelly after a handful of downers. He layers in Nina Hynes' folksy, Celtic vocals, and the end result offers a dense patchwork of themes similar to a Keith Jarrett improvisation. Like much of Jarrett's work this is also an album of unstinting positivity. Mayfly is a jangly, saccharine piece of electro chill - Four Tet slowed down and stripped of baroque pretensions. Deeper Than Heaven is a sexy, breathy torch song, with a voice like a normalized Bjork. More impressive still is the title track, slower, more symphonic and generally grander in ambition. Behan chucks in some pianos, and the end result is spectacular. Hanover may remind you of mid-90s Orbital - organic dance music or electrified acoustic, perhaps. Anachronistic, maybe, but it's also a very satisfying sound to revive. The mini-loops and synth harpsichord on Summer on the Wall are like a kitsch - even kitschier - M83. There's even some birdsong for good measure.

Just as things are starting to get a little bit too cloying and sweet Behan ups the stakes with the raucous Dandelions while keeping up the kitchen sink ethos with mad clock chimes. Normal Situations is the track that Air and Daft Punk might record together while sipping cocktails in the garden and trying to avoid doing any real work. And to close, he shows off all his ambition and tricks with the oceanic Under the Woods.

Perhaps best filed under retro-electro chill, this is not an album that sets trends or pushes barriers. What it is, is eminently listenable, clever, well put-together and deeply pleasurable. The first ray of sun this spring.