Akustik: Allie

If this adoptive Berliner with a voice like a whisper has just revived Jeddy 3 as the title track to his third album "Uncanny Valley", it's not only to give a heartfelt nod to Grandaddy, the recently re-grouped garage-space-combo headed by analog synth disciple Jason Lytle. It's also a reference to the underlying theme at the core of his debut for Clouds Hill. Namely: deep within this uncanny valley of mystical promise lies the easy frustration of disappointment. Here Patti Smith encounters Jesus, a car salesman meets a fortune teller, even Batman gets a bloody nose and songs are written for girls that can hardly dance to them.

Clouds Hill house producer Johann Scheerer and drummer Tim Schierenbeck helped add fullness to the songs "Patti", "Real Highlights", "Try To Hold Her Hand One Day" or "Love Is Quinine" with rhythmic patterns, electronic textures and swathes of sounds without any stifling overkill. And a little pop appeal resonates between "Mayo" and "Number 1".

"The melodies are simple. They float above and just have to land at some point. But the words are sound, too. I collect phrases and words that sound good to me. Then I try to put them together like a puzzle until something like a theme emerges. The theme is always new to me, not necessarily something that I'm struggling with at that moment. Maybe it's coming from somewhere deeper, where I couldn't see it before. Often when I follow it, everything rhymes and comes together in an almost magical way. But sometimes, the thoughts fray and do not move. At least not forwards."