- When I heard Devon Welsh sing "See how I’m faking my side of it? / I’m a liar, I say I make music" on the opening and title track to his new album Impersonator, I was almost convinced it was the truth. His musical compatriot, Matthew Otto with whom he has made his second album as Majical Cloudz, contributes synth backing that is so simple and subtle, that sometimes it’s almost not even there and Welsh’s own vocals, without ever being spoken word, often feel like it.

Not music? What are we doing here then? No, it is, and of a most profound quality. Welsh’s lyrics are always intimate, an invitation to commune with him in conversations that can be uncomfortable, unsettling, but also revelatory, powerful. I have heard his style compared to Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, his output from the 90s onwards, at any rate, if you stripped it of all it’s theatricality. It’s often more like John Grant‘s similarly gripping and confessional record from earlier this year, Pale Green Ghosts. Unlike Grant, however, Welsh isn’t in thrall to bitterness, cynicism and vengeful bitchiness. There’s a lot that’s messed up in Welsh’s head, but he still presents a personality that’s very open and inviting, a sometimes messianic figure.

Most of the time it would be inappropriate for the music to be more central to Magical Cloudz style than it is, risking overwhelming Welsh’s quiet parables. The pair maintain very strict control over it, however and know just when to give something extra, as when the bass swells to a roar in the confronting death meditation Bugs Don’t Buzz. Similarly the addition of lilting falsetto and Welsh’s surprisingly beautiful full-voiced tenor on what is otherwise the simplest of love-songs, Silver Rings, is profoundly moving. These provide a surprisingly effective setting for Welsh’s quiet homilies, featured on more central tracks, like This Is Magic or single Childhood’s End.

It’s hard not to want to share more of those words with you, like the floating darkness that ends "This Is Magic: As I let my body go / I thought you should know / That it’s been so fine / I feel like a kid / I see some monsters standing over my crib / And they fall in."

Magical Cloudz share something that is quite discomfiting, but difficult not to be drawn into.

- Chris Cobcroft.