Introducing… Penguin Prison

Penguin Prison

Penguin Prison is New Yorker Chris Glover. He was first introduced to the world by influential boutique label Neon Gold who specialise in pop music. Bloggers gobble up Neon Gold’s blog posts and spit them out on their own sites perhaps partly due to laziness but mostly because the music they put out is just so good. Success stories include Marina and the Diamonds and Ellie Goulding who occupied the top spots on the BBC’s Sound of 2010 list showing how their influence had infiltrated the mainstream.

Penguin Prison has also received a warm welcome by the blogs and will want to emulate the label’s success stories as he goes on. All his songs so far have been offered as free downloads. His first song ‘Animal Animal#, a slightly lacklustre pop song with reggae-lite noises was underwhelming compared to his remixes making you think that perhaps he’s a better producer than a pop star. His remix of Erik (not really worth the) Hassle (of checking out the rest of his music) in particular takes away all the middle of the road dullness and transforms the song into an incredibly listenable heartbreaker showing off Hassle’s interesting voice and lyrics. Everything else since then has proved the “better producer” theory wrong. ‘A Funny Thing’ is a sparkly mellow dance number with a brilliant Monarchy remix.

He attended a professional performing arts school and sang in a gospel choir with Alicia Keys, which will probably be an interview soundbite that keeps haunting him, and this probably didn’t dampen his ambitious side and on double A-side release ‘The Worse It Gets’/'Something I’m Not’ he gets to show off more of his singing abilities. The fidgety synth-pop of ‘Something I’m Not’ contrasts with the more laid-back ‘The Worse It Gets; and both are his best songs to date.

The album, which is apparently coming soon but hasn’t been given a definite release date, has been co-produced by Dan Grech-Marguerat, who has previously worked with Wiley, Sound of Arrows and Tom Jones (that’s one dinner party we’d etc. etc.) so it promises to be a twinkly synth extravaganza.

The one man electro pop scene hasn’t set the chart alight over the past few years despite a lot of hype surrounding many from the self-made Frankmusik to the more manufactured Alex Gardner and the aforementioned Erik Hassle. Recently pretending to be in a band has become the new acceptable face of the solo artist with their Machines and Diamonds. Penguin Prison feels more like a band’s frontman and may prove a more credible option for those who can’t handle the thought of liking a male pop star and in the few live gigs he’s done he’s played with a proper band with guitars and everything.  He is most definitely a talented performer and producer who doesn’t deserve to be dismissed.

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