You're arguably at something of a disadvantage if your name is James Dean, but whether Cookshop Records' head honcho was born with or adopted it I know not. However, in his own little way he's gently turning into the sort of cool, underground character the name befits.
Unlike this writer, you might be more familiar with him as J-SPOOL: the moniker under which he has recorded for Marco Passarani's Nature label, but as Lost Idol he's unfamiliar to these ears, despite releasing a debut album in 2006 courtesy of 'Utters From a Cluttered Mind'.
So we've established that JD has something of a rep in place in the correct circles, but for this writer 'A Sorrowful Thing' is a debut calling card. It's not a bad initial handshake either, straddling folk and electronica, with amorphous, deep space keyboards and low-key beats meeting folksy English pop and Dean's secret weapon: his voice, which has a hangdog, melancholic quality reminiscent of a young Robert Wyatt and is the main reason why this reviewer would like to wait around here for a while.
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Taken from Lost Idol's forthcoming 'Brave The Elements', 'A Sorrowful Thing' is aptly titled and definitely something of a grower. It also proffers a sprightly, melodica-enhanced “re-jig” from IQ Two-Plum (no, me neither) and it will very probably get its' scuffed shoes under your emotional table. Cookshop's James Dean, it seems, may be a little-known rebel at present, but he has a cause worth championing.
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