Despite what you might think, SG Lewis is not a high concept cabaret act combining the characters of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, and neither is he the offspring of 1990s reggae star CJ Lewis, reaching for his father’s legacy. He’s an electronic music producer from Reading.
If that intro seems a little kooky and idiosyncratic, then it is in direct contrast to ‘AudioLust & HigherLove’. This is, despite some handsome turns, a very off-the-shelf pop album.
Admittedly, those handsome turns land pretty well. Holding On is a chunky toe tapper with diaphanous synths and well handled drum machine rhythms that, along with Call On Me (with Tove Lo), form an essential sound for the record: throwback electro.
The problem is that this sound has been nailed in the past few years by artists of a higher profile and with a clearer vision. Jessie Ware is one of them, with What’s Your Pleasure? and Bat for Lashes is another with Lost Girls. ‘AudioLust & HigherLove’ is pretty dull in comparison.
There is no law stating that young recording artists should sound original and, indeed, some of the most celebrated voices of the past 20 years are simply updates of tried and tested sonic formula: Adele is an update of Amy Winehouse, Oasis were an update of the Beatles who managed to creatively misfire surprisingly early. You can still do amazing things by fiddling around the edges; tweaking beloved sounds.
But Lewis’s second album is mechanical, clean, box-ticky. It actually has the essence of music created via an Artificial Intelligence algorithm, as though you funnelled in the catalogues of superstar DJ Calvin Harris and the West London production duo Jungle, both of whom themselves sound like they were created by algorithms. It lacks definition.
SG Lewis Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun March 26 2023 - DUBLIN 3Olympia Theatre
Tue March 28 2023 - LEEDS Leeds Uni Stylus
Thu March 30 2023 - MANCHESTER New Century Hall
Fri March 31 2023 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
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