Submarine

SkinDiving (Reprise)

Daring to trip down into the sweet sea of shivers that's shielded by your skin, Submarine submerges, dives deep into those secret spots behind your consciousness that only glow with the lights out. In their debut album SkinDiving, south London trio Al Boyd, Richard Jeffrey and Adaesi Ukairo have oozed out a unique and seductive blend of aquamarine electronic pulse. Lyrically intriguing, although sometime tempted to too-easy rhymes, SkinDiving strikes a perfect balance between vocal and vibration.

The album starts sinister and subtle with guilty tracks like "Sunbeam," suspending Ukairo's sultry British voice, vaguely reminiscent of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, over relaxed jazz grooves that fuse high-pitched rhythms with smooth bass. But as Submarine dives deeper into the skin it somehow finds its innocence in the lighter, airier texture of songs like "Out to Lunch" that replace much of the bass with the softer aura of strings.

Though the beginning of the album is more successful than the end, the shift is skillful and it remains cohesive, revealing a versatility in the trio that should keep them around for at least a little while. Boyd's musical direction and Jeffrey's lyrics should serve as backbones to the band in future endeavors, but more than anything it is Ukairo's voice that makes Submarine sparkle in the dark.