Cheapskate - hopelessly cuckoo but loveable with it, there’s something refreshingly crisp, tangy and delectably breezy about Scouser Cheapskate . Currently buoyed by a spanking new EP entitled ’science and love’ this unassuming talent manages to tease out sumptuous pop inclines of softly stirred candy toned biter sweet slice of driftwood.

Six cuts are showcased here that signal a breathless aptitude for melodic craftsmanship, ’little dave’ with its slender riff refrains recalls the dreamy chilled out swirls that the Pale Saints once decorated listening spaces with albeit here applied with the simplistic intimacy and tenderness of a youthful Johnny Marr while ’that girl’ opts for a fuzzily effervescent sleepover with its lightly toned 60’styled hippy dippy hip hugging shoe shuffling collages sounding like they’ve just woken from an extended nap straight out of a funky day-glo beach party.

That said we suspect that Cheapskate has a thing for Pizzicato 5 and John Lurie hinted subtly on the crooked jazz funk sortie ’make me move’ with its curious salsa like wig flipping lounge lilts. Elsewhere ’science and love’ is a lo-fi drilled jitterbugging beauty riddled with dinky promenade keys which admittedly has you imagining the score for ’Get Shorty’ relocated to the seaside of Blackpool.

Best of the set though by some distance is ’the big decisions are the ones’ - a smoking cutie of reclining mellowness that all at once manages to seductively shoehorn an assortment of familiar melodic baggage ranging from early 80’s styled Kitchenware vibes, noire drilled winter toned lounge like motifs a la L’Augmentation and Stereolab and the airy vibrancy of incidental dialects drawn from classic styled late 60’s / early 70’s Brit cinematics and here we are thinking ’Spring and Port Wine’. We really must nail that 7 inch EP.


Psychedelic scouser Cheapskate delivers a mix of 60’s pop and beat music. Luckily, I have two sisters much older than myself so am fairly comfortable with the origination of Cheapskate’s music. That makes me a fan of some of his influences that are mired in that era.

His first track ‘You Know’ is sung with a laconic Ray Davis type vocal – catchy little number, repetitive in nature. It gets in your head and goes around in a loop only to be cured by a blast of Maiden. ‘Science and Love’ makes you realise that even the Arctic Monkeys were anchored somewhere in this style of delivery – a type of narrative, native to a particular region.

And then he loses me a little with an instrumental ‘Southerndown’. I have nothing against instrumentals. In fact, I rather enjoy them, but this needs to be tightened up a tad with smoother key changes to make it work. Second instrumental is entitled ‘If you Don’t’ and fires up, to my mind, a little like the The Jam’s ‘Start!’

Ah- sounds of a cup of tea being made. The power of suggestion and I find myself with a mug of tea listening to ‘Trees’. I’ve never been a fan of the flute and in this track its inclusion gives a ‘Herbie Rides Again’ feel to this composition.

‘That Girl’ reveals shades of the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Keep on Running’. Repetitive lyrics through this consist of the same two lines. The final track on offer is ‘The Big Decisions Are the Ones that Count’.’ This is a very atmospheric and melodic instrumental that probably is my favourite of all tracks on offer.

There’s nothing wrong with niche. Pursuing music that might not be perceived to be currently commercial is courageous and shows an inspiration in something other than mainstream. And you can pay homage to an era that fascinates, which is what I feel Cheapskate may be doing in his off beat and retro way.