•• Fink - Pretty Little Thing (Ninja Tune)
•• Published: musicOMH, February 2006
•• Original article: http://www.musicomh.com/singles6/fink_0106.htm

Fink's latest release may come as surprise to some. Having released Fresh Produce in 2000, a leftfield album of beats and samples very much in keeping with the Ninja Tune blueprint, Pretty Little Thing marks a departure for both artist and the Coldcut-owned label.

The surprise is a pleasant one though as Brighton-based Fin Greenall becomes the first singer / songwriter on a label normally famed for twisted hip hop beats and the type of head-mangling abstraction beloved of Amon Tobin. This instead is calm, smooth and truly soulful as minimal beats and delicate melodies flicker beneath Greenall's rich tones on both the acoustic funk of the main track and the melancholy warmth of Biscuits. In fact it is Biscuits that really steals the show with its subtle acoustic guitar and gentle ambience making the perfect bedfellow for the woozy vocal delivery.

Any narrow-minded obsessives who believe Ninja Tune should stick to what they know and avoid branching out will probably denounce this release on principle, but if such limiting preconceptions can be overcome they may just have a best-selling star on their hands in the coming months.

- Ian Roullier