It’s not often you get to use the word ‘cat’ about a fellow human being without feeling (a) anachronistic and (b) a bit of a twat. But then it’s not every day you come across someone like Pop Levi. And Pop Levi is one strange cat.

Born in London, with musical roots in Liverpool, a stint playing with Ladytron and a home in Los Angeles, Pop Levi likes to describe what’s good about pop music as “astral”. His debut album, “The Return To Form Black Magick Party,” is, fittingly, worthy of the term. Although the most obvious precursor of his sound might be Mark Bolan, listen carefully and you’ll hear touches of everyone from Jack White, Prince and Hendrix to Dylan, Lennon and Beefheart in there. But rather than being any kind of eyebrow-raised pastiche, this is what Pop describes as “channelling” – an album of such complete conviction, flair and energy (plus a lorryload of hooks) that it is utterly irresistible, a stack heel pushed right down on the accelerator.

From opening single, “Sugar Assault Me Now,” “Return To Form…” picks you up and carries you along on a wave of jagged guitar riffs, rumbling drums, fuzzed up bass and Pop’s unique voice. Before you know it, “Blue Honey” has kicked in and you’re riding bareback over another monster groove. “(A Style Called) Crying Chic” is acid-fried folk blues, “Pick-Me-Up Uppercut” classic call-n-response bubblegum pop that somehow manages to reference the Undertones as well as the Shirelles. “Skip Ghetto” takes a more contemplative turn, the lyrics ostensibly about a girl, but actually a commentary on musical pigeon-holing. “Dollar Bill Rock” takes the tempo up again with a crazed blues skank. And so it goes on. “Flirting” is epic and affecting, “Mournin’ Light” a monster of rock riffage, “See My Lord” nods to avant garde jazz, “Hades’ Lady” to electrified Dylan. The album is rounded off by “From The Day That You Were Born,” a lullaby for Pop’s as-yet-unborn daughter, which builds to a truly beautiful string-fuelled coda.

In the process Pop seems to completely explode the already-tired consensus of rock music in the UK. Not for him the dour re-telling of reality. Pop Levi is not a reporter. He wants to re-make reality, and re-make it in his image. Call it astral projection if you like, but Pop Levi is going to be a star.

“Stomping infectious glam rock has never sounded so tightly wound and yet so sexily loose at the same time. He’s proggy, he’s protentious, he’s preposterous. But he’s pretty great too.” – NME ‘Live review’

"We've got a feeling that things are going pop off big time for this swaggering LA psyche child" DAZED

“Less singer-songwriter, more junk yard Beck, this former member of Ladytron impressed Ninja Tune so much they gave him his own Counter Records imprint. And on the evidence of this first five-track ep, no wonder” OMM – HOT TUNES

Rockabilly-tinged mentalist rock....astoundingly good" WHAT'S ON

‘Fully tremendous rock and roll soul…his gigs are things of craziness and wonder“ WORD

"A solo master of psych-glam-garage-blues-rock"….."debut EP 'Blue Honey' is one of the most infectious yet mind-blowing things you'll have heard"….“new psychlord on the block whose densely layered acid glam anthems are what Aphex Twin would sound like if he played astral rock’n’roll instead of techno” TIME OUT

"Trippy, sexy, wickedly produced, deeply psychedelic glam rock" MIX MAG

“A timeless glam racket from LA based Levi.”MUSIC WEEK - PLAYLIST

“This English born, L.A based multi-instrumentalist comes across as a convincing ‘modern T-Rex'….forthcoming album ‘The Return To Form Black Magick Party’ should easily break him to a (deserved) large audience’ *****DMC UPDATE

Return To Form Black Magick Party
“There are few genuine mavericks in music today, but Pop Levi appears to be one of them.” - Q

“The results should be catastrophic, but such is the man’s zest and pinballing musical imagination that it’s hard not to be wildly entertained.” – Q

“Glammy, witty, pouty, he camps and vamps around the shiny surfaces of formidably sexy dance-pop… Poppa’s got an altogether warmer, funnier bag.” – 7/10 NME

“This magpie flits across the whole musical map. Imagine Bolan produced by Prince, then scrambled by Beck, and you’re only halfway there. Killer single "Blue Honey" and the equally buzzing "Dollar Bill Rock" suggest a fervid obsession with ‘70s glam. But they’re offset by the boho psychedelia of "See My Lord" and the blissed-out "(A Style Called) Crying Chic” – **** UNCUT

“Its hard to overstate the addictive weirdness of Pop Levi… It floats in its own cosmic bubble… Levi oozes flamboyant, dippy star power.” - **** OMM

“Levi exudes the sort of pseudo-messianic confidence and aspirational glamour that is unavoidably seductive. Black Magic Party sees him dissect a melange of classic influences – Prince, the Beatles, Abba, Syd Barrett, and Little Richard – and reimagine their collective sound.” – **** OMM

“Immerse yourself in Black Magick Party’s world, though, and you will become hopelessly attached.” - **** OMM

“One of our most single minded and most versatile new artists” – WORD

“On a mission to recapture the magic moment when Marc Bolan and Robert Plant represented pop music’s duality… He succeeds completely.” - **** The Times

“Beguiling and bizarre in equal measure… there is depth beyond the Willy Wonka weirdness” - *** Guardian

“We called Mika the new saviour of pop. We’ve hardly had time to blink before another one comes along… This debut solo album is one of the most riotously enjoyable things you’re likely to hear all year.” – The Sun (4.5/5)

“Brazenly confident… embraces the fizz and spectacle of a top-shelf pop tune. I fully expect him to perform thrusting glam rock fireballs ‘Sugar Assault Me Now’ and ‘Pick-Me-Up Uppercut’ with formation dancers.” – The Fly

“A proper house party starter” – Nuts

“Tremendous from start to finish. Get into it now.” – **** What’s On London

Sugar Assault Me Now
“plays the sort of snake-hipped glam boogie that Kings Of Leon might if they’d spent the summer locked up in Noddy Holder’s cellar” - NME

‘Sugar Assault Me Now is no tiresome pastiche. From the moment the piledriving drums steam into the buzzsaw guitar, it’s a blaze of discordant glory. The hint of S&M in the lyrics is simply the icing on the cake”. MUSIC WEEK

"Definitely a one off" ONE WEEK TO LIVE