As you might expect from a man who launched his musical career while studying at the Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study and who followed his 2012 debut album with a documentary on the Washington DC go-go scene, Kindness’s Adam Bainbridge has a somewhat scholarly take on soul music. However, his meticulous approach proves to be an advantage rather than an oxymoron. A hefty sample of Art of Noise’s Moments in Love on With You signals Bainbridge’s aim to combine soulful sensuality with artful experimentation; with the aid of some delicate playing from jazz sessioneers Finn Peters and Sam Beste he duly pulls it off. This really is a beautifully crafted album, its sincere homages to Jam & Lewis’s crisp R&B or Womack & Womack’s swish club soul transformed by a distinctly English kind of longing. Bainbridge remains a slightly aloof presence throughout, but zesty vocal cameos from Kelela, Robyn, Tawiah and Ghanaian rapper M.anifest save Otherness from slipping into tasteful self-indulgence.
