Kele "Trick" (2014)

Trick
release date: Oct. 13, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,68]
producer: Kele Okereke with Alex Brady and Tom Belton
label: Lilac Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "First Impressions" - 2. "Coasting" - 9. "Silver and Gold"

2nd full-length solo album by Kele (Okereke) and his first release on his own label, Lilac Records. The 10 track album continues down the electronic and alt. dance path that he has proven to prefer as a solo artist, which also explains the influences one may find on the last three Bloc Party albums.
I don't find this as daring or intriguing as his fine solo debut Boxer from 2010. On Trick he stays on the main road of disco-influenced house or deep house, and I think it somewhat disappoints by staying much in the same mode without much to offer than simple drum and bass-backed compositions. In fact the tracks are so similar that they turn out as mere remixes of the same idea, or old Bloc Party tunes, which doesn't help much on the impression of the various tracks or the album in general.
Not recommended.

Kele "The Boxer" (2010)

The Boxer [debut]
release date: Jun. 21, 2010
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,70]
producer: XXXChange (aka Alex Brady Epton)
label: Wichita Recordings - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: 1. "Walk Tall" (4 / 5) - 2. "On the Lam" (4 / 5) - 3. "Tenderoni" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "The Other Side" (3 / 5) - 5. "Everything You Wanted" (4 / 5) (live at The BBC) - 6. "New Rules" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Unholy Thoughts" (3 / 5) - 8. "Rise" (3,5 / 5) - 9. "All the Things I Could Never Say" (4 / 5) - 10. "Yesterday's Gone" (3,5 / 5)

Solo studio album debut by Kele (aka Kele Okereke), frontman and vocalist of Bloc Party, is released after Kele in early 2010 openly declared to be gay, and the songs on the album deal with aspects and consequences of homosexuality in modern Britain.
Bloc Party surely has divided people and music fans in Britain and elsewhere. The band came out on top of the new retro post-punk wave (post punk revival), which flurished on both sides of the Atlantic. The band's initial indie rock style was the new frontier and Bloc Party had a massive hit with "Banquet", which had me fall for the quartet, and because of that everyone expected the bond to post-punk as their style - sort of: "That's it then! Interpol elaborate on the style from New York and Bloc Party attack it from London". But Bloc Party quickly side-stepped and sought out new playgrounds and it took me a while getting used to the band's experimentation with electronica but eventually I found huge pleasure from it. Now, Kele goes even further on this, which naturally is less guitar-based, but it still holds water, even as an indie rock combo with alt. dance, glitch pop in an electronic compound. It's really addictive when played loud. "Tenderoni" was initially a strange song but after a few listens at high volume, I really got into it, and after fifty and more, it's just a monster of a track.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5 stars ]