With so many singer/songwriters making their way around the UK music market, when I was sent details of another one, my first reaction was that he was going to be another James Blunt / Damien Rice carbon copy. However, in the interests of fairness I had a listen, and was pleasantly surprised by Yoav, an Israeli-born, South Africa raised nomad currently living in London.

His debut album, “Charmed and Strange” is something quite outside the normal realms of singer-songwriters, with the vast majority of the music coming just from him and his bass heavy, danceable thuds his guitar generates.

“Club Thing” sees Yoav taking a wander around a dark and sweaty underground club, his guitar strumming the background to his story: “he watches from the corner / he waits for her to stumble / he knows that he’s the king / the king of the cardboard jungle”.

Quickly followed up by “Live”, Yoav provides the fast-paced soundtrack to leopards and lions going in for the kill, a hip-hop version of wild Saharan battles.

Personal highlight of the album, “Beautiful Lie” is gentle, yet somehow haunting as Yoav provides wisdom beyond his years, slowly building the song up, bringing it back down for a brilliant crescendo that is probably one of the best tracks this year by a solo artist. Unfortunately however “Beautiful Lie” is followed by the weakest track of the album, “Angel and the Animal” which whilst is an alright track, it would be more at home on a Disney soundtrack rather than one of a respectable rising star.

Closing out with the marvellous “Where is My Mind”, Yoav takes the Pixies classic and turns it into his own, something that more famous artists have failed spectacularly (yes, Placebo, I’m looking at you). It’s haunting, a brilliant album-closer and shows off just all of Yoav’s skills: great delivery, film like sound tracking and haunting tunes.

Whilst it undoubtedly won’t be for everyone, I personally love it, and it spent most of the past term in my car as I motored up and down to uni each and every day. Give him a go, you never know, you might like it.

Okay, so I’ve been slacking a bit on the posting front recently. I know, shocking. But, thankfully very few new tours have been announced in the run up to Christmas. Expect a newly redesigned TGTF come January (if I pull my finger out…)

Anyway, moving on.

One of my hottest tips for 2008, Yoav, has announced his first tour of the new year, seeing him playing some smaller venues around the UK.

His new single, “Beautiful Lie” is this week’s single of the week on iTunes last week, so why not click here and download it for free until Christmas Eve? (That’s in just two days for all you not-so-bright ones out there!)

Yoav plays the following dates in January. Tickets for the Manchester and London dates go on sale next Friday, 4th January, when no doubt you’ll all be nursing huge hangovers and a rather large credit card bill, but he’ll clear up your January blues for you!

Monday 14th January - Brighton The Albert
Tuesday 15th January - Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
Wednesday 16th January - Glasgow King Tut’s
Saturday 19th January - Lancaster Music Library
Sunday 20th January - Liverpool Korova
Monday 21st January - Manchester Night and Day
Wednesday 23rd January - Oxford Jericho Tavern
Thursday 24th January - London 93 Feet East
Friday 25th January - Nottingham The Bodega Social

Hundreds of new singer/songwriters emerge every year, and only a few will ever get any whiff of success, usually because they’re too bland and just like the others to get people properly excited. However, Yoav seems to be different. Very different.

Born in Israel, raised in South Africa, lived in New York, currently living in London, Yoav has a distinctly unique style – out of the window are the emo love songs typically associated with singer-songwriters, and in are beats, blips and down-tempo post-club comedown tunes. The American market didn’t like his blend of Damien Rice and downtempo Depeche Mode, so he came to London, where, understandably, everyone loves him.

Following in Newton Faulkner’s footsteps of multi-genre bending, Yoav has his first single, “Beautiful Mind” out in the week before Christmas on 18th December. It’s the sort of thing you can imagine Justin Timberlake doing, but just as much Beck, or In Rainbows era Radiohead. It can make you dance or make you chill out. It’s that great. It’s quickly going to ingrain itself in your mind, so wander over to his MySpace and take a listen. You

The album “Charmed & Strange” will be released digitally on the same day, though I don’t know when the old-school CD release will be. Apparently it was recorded real close to where I live in the UK, in Oxford and also in current musical-it city, Montreal. Every note of it is played, teased, tapped and pounded out of his guitar, which is hard to believe going by the few tracks on his myspace.