Over the last couple of years and in the circles he was operating in, Mikesh has gained to be somewhat of a prodigy. He’s known to be the guy with the perfect pitch, as the variable, precisely arranging, forward thinking and still quite casual producer, that drops one sure shot after the other. You could’ve called him Leipzig’s Timberlake, a virtuoso of a, let’s say: debonair arrogation, to not let parochial narrow mindedness get in the way of his Pop-vision. He was performing live a lot, mostly just him. He was building up a solid 12”-discography joining forces with his DJ-partner Filburt. A backcatalogue including reputable landmarks like Permanent Vacation, Liebe*Detail or Mirau. He could’ve chosen the easy way from this point on. He could’ve taken his insights into Space Disco and House and produce himself into the Decks-charts, entertaining some dancefloors every two or three days. But that just wouldn’t be enough. Every move Mikesh makes is about Popmusic. Not for the self-purpose of the big gesture, but the devoted handling of this universal language’s rules. A language, Mikesh is beginning to speak flawlessly, in all dialects you could imagine, be it R’n’B, Disco or New Wave. If it wouldn’t sound so over-academic, you could call this album his PhD.

On Yellow Lights, he is blending cryptic shadows, eternal yearning, floor-epiphanies and airplay-suitability into a sound-design, that – in all its referential consciousness – is beyond example. You’ll be able to filter traditions out of this album, that start with early Human League or Heaven 17 and reach into the more contemporary blueprints of intelligent, perceptible and ever-valid Popmusic like LCD Soundsystem or Junior Boys. It’s not so much those traditions themselves, but the awareness to pervade their secret, that makes Mikesh’s songs so exciting and coherent. Just give “Standing on a Mountain High” a try and look for options of improvement. Not a chance.

To project this awareness, this new and much broader universality, documented in Yellow Lights, into a live-setting, Good Guy Mikesh has grown into a full fledged band. Good Guy Mikesh is now Linda, Peter & Mikesh. They are the stage-proved embodiment of a phenomenon. Chances are, it is the most remarkable local Pop-phenomenon of the last then years. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.