Not to be confused with boyband A1, this Bristol duo deals in homegrown trip-hop beats, not a million miles away from their label bosses at Melankolic, Massive Attack. Phelim Byrne and Donnie Hardwidge avoid the obvious comparisons, however, by lacing their sound with rootsy acoustic guitars and liquid bursts of orchestral strings, and delivering their laid-back songs in an ironic, narrative style.
The duo's debut album, Ordinary Man, is out this week, and the pair brought a full band to Dublin last Friday for a sneak preview at Whelans. Byrne boasts Irish lineage (his brother was in Marxman and his dad was in the marginally less cool Emmet Spiceland) but his rap/raconteur style is closer to the Fun-Lovin' Criminals than to Christy Moore. As he hoarsely spins out the storylines of Trying Too Hard and Truly Madly, Byrne comes across as a bookish cousin of Huey Morgan - you suspect that Fibonacci's Number has nothing to do with a Sicilian hitman.
I'm Doin' Fine is trip-hop's answer to Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, but the wincingly-titled Love On The Dole would make even Neil Diamond cringe into his giant shirt collar. Luckily, most of Day One's songs - current single, In Your Life, for example - are finely-crafted and sharply-observed, Hardwidge's keyboards creating a tasteful backdrop for Byrne's gritty tales of the city. Their resolutely downbeat approach, however, made this a cerebral rather than a soulful experience.
