Paul J Fox is a 25 year old artist from Belfast who records and performs under the moniker Coastal.

He draws influences from (amongst others) Beck, The Strokes, Robin Guthrie, Wilco and Television, but like all the best artists, he has enough originality and imagination to turn these into something entirely of his own making.

Previously he was a member of Kitty and the Can Openers until divisions in the the group led to their disbanding in early 2011, shortly after which Paul suffered a breakdown of sorts forcing him to retreat back to the bedroom where he started recording for himself.

The results are quite spectacular, a unique mix of beautifully fragile melancholia, some twangy surf-pop guitar and sweetly crooned vocals, all punctuated by pensive, poetic lyrics filled with self deprecation and loneliness. Perhaps the best description we read was “visions of the void through a slightly debilitating morphine haze.”

Crumble Blue, the debut EP is five tracks of outstanding quality and two are available for you to download gratis below. May we particularly recommend the upbeat twang, sweet backing harmonies and bitter, downbeat vocals of Black Stars / Flash Cars, it is a deceptively vicious tale referencing Jeremy Kyle, Starbucks and handfuls of pills amongst other things.

This will be one to snap up and hang on to – get the whole EP from his Bandcamp page here.

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