lightspeed-championThe uber-prolific (he recently announced that he was set to release 50 free ‘bootleg’ albums, each comprising improvised songs) Devonte Hynes returns with an impressively expansive record and UK tour.

Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is the second offering from the former Test-Icicle in his Lightspeed Champion guise and pushes his sound into new territories.  The big production and melodramatic sound (Hynes doesn’t just wear his heart on his sleeve, he positively staples it to the cuff and reaches his arms out to you, all the time serenading  you with his pleading voice) mark this album out as being like Mika, but for music-lovers.

Hynes has been hugely ambitious with his sound, boldly chucking all sorts into the pot to create a genre-defying record – where else could you find the country-funk of recent single Marlene? Where else could you find the pairing of jaunty Eighteenth Century harpsichord and sci-fi keyboards of The Big Guns Of Highsmith? Somehow, he’s pulled it off. Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is an almost maddeningly addictive record.

Not content with that and his self-bootlegging, Hynes and friends have put together what they call a  ‘TV show trailer’ featuring a medley of Lightspeed Champion hits and popular b-side 69 Année Erotique, a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg classic and announced a string of UK dates. (Details below)

Hynes will also find time on May 10th to release a single, Madame Van Damme. ‘Kill me,baby won’t you kill me?’ he implores in the song…chances are he’ll have already worked himself to death.

Full tour dates are:

1          May           Leeds - Live at Leeds at Stylus

3          May           Nottingham – Bodega

5          May           Glasgow - King Tuts

6          May           Manchester -Deaf Institute

7          May           Newcastle - Cluny

9          May           Birmingham – O2 Academy 3

10        May           London - Heaven

11        May           Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms

13        May           Norwich - Arts Centre

14        May           Bristol – Academy 2

15        May           Cambridge- Haymakers