Daniel O’Sullivan + Richard Youngs

★★★★

Twelve Of Hearts O GENESIS. DL/LP

British duo’s inventive digidoo wop experiment.

Two serial collaborators with a penchant for conceptual avant-folk, O’Sullivan and Youngs’ paths were destined to cross. Though the descriptions do them a disservice, O’Sullivan is a rhythm-minded inventor and Youngs a singersongwriter at heart. Twelve Of

Hearts is the result of an adopted geometric formula – “the same four chords… and never change key” – and computers were part of the process, so how they’ve created this warm, lively collection of doo wop songs is a mystery. Only occasionally challenging (a sound like a synth-mangled bullhorn dominates First Throw Of The Ocean), the duo delight in cascading harmonies and tingling melodies against shifting backdrops, with fascinating sideways steps: Touch Of The Sun and Oblivion Riviera respectively inch closer to a madrigal and barbershop quartet. File alongside Robert Wyatt’s similarly uncanny approach to folk-song, and other unexpectedly great oddities.