Today’s artist is Sam Richardson, a young history student from Brighton who according to himself spend all his time making music and drawing pictures. The University teachers would probably like him to spend his time more wisely, but I’m very happy with the way he has chosen to prioritize. Richardson’s music is definitely pop, very catchy, with delicious melodies and smart arrangements. Everything is electronic, with lots of quite sharp arcade game sounds, but Sam Richardson’s warm vocals and his down-to-earth lyrics makes his music sound organic and not that “sharp” at all.

I’m usually not a fan of arcade sounds and 8-bit electronica or whatever that kind of computergame-pop is called, but I really like the way Richardson has managed to blend the human elements and the pop-feeling with the retro sounding arcade sounds. Brilliant! In some ways, his music reminds me of Sportsday Megaphone and James Yuill, both very creative and melody focused artists with a style that is difficult to classify (it’s probably called something, but I stopped keeping track of all the sub-genres of electronic music a long time ago, – too many of them…).

- “I would have been a guitarist but for the fact i could not play without making myself bleed, a problem in my technique probably, so i resorted to instruments with no sharp edges,” he tells us, and I think he should stick to that. Guitars can be very dangerous, and Richardson is very good at what he is doing now.

Sam Richardson is currently working on his debut album, and hope to have it finished by the end of the year.

Here are two of Sam Richardson’s songs:

Sam Richardson – Just a Short Walk Home
Sam Richardson – Die trying

You can hear more of his songs on myspace.