- Sometimes a cool, fresh breeze is the best change you could ask for. KESMAR is something of the musical equivalent of that. It’s certainly a change for Nathan Hawes, taking the folk, singer-songwriter shtick that got him on The Voice and sixty thousand social media followers and turning it on its ear. Goodbye acoustic guitar and long, flowing locks, hello short and sensible hair and grown-up, coastal elite grooves.

Having been sucked up by the music industry machine at a very young age, Hawes has the advantage of still being pretty fresh faced as he completely reinvents himself, musically. The process had already begun as far back as four years ago and really kicked off with an EP, Up To You in 2019; only it didn’t, for obvious reasons. The world tours might have been off the table, but the EP was a statement of dancey, electro-pop intent; and yet… There’s a subtle something that separates it and KESMAR’s 2021 restart record, Forever Holiday. 

Hawes was already aiming for a sound that was stylish and continental, nu-disco namechecking influences like L’Imperatrice, Metronomy and Roosevelt and that stuff is there in both records (L’Imperatrice’s Flore Benguigui even guests on the rather nice new single Johatsu), but I can’t help feeling that the game has changed again. During the pandemic KESMAR ditched his Island / Universal home and joined Nettwerk who’re now introducing him as a yacht-rocker with a taste for Christopher Cross and The Alessi Brothers. Some of the muscular, forward-propulsion of the dance grooves has been eased back and while the synths are still there, they’re joined by flutes and sax; everything sounds smoothly late ‘70s or early ‘80s but absolutely unfussed by the idea of dancing. "They don’t call it a discotheque anymore” croons Hawes on opener Meteorite and that captures the mood in multiple ways 

It’s a very grown-up experience, full of nostalgia and bittersweetness far beyond Nathan Hawes' years. I get these Geoffrey O’Connor vibes every time I listen to Forever Holiday, which is what drew me in, I suppose; actually, O’Connor went from folk to electro-pop too - odd! To complete the list of strange resonances, every now and then I get sent a record by a former Voice contestant and they always embrace pop cheese too, just they’ve never done it quite like this before.

Is this record what KESMAR’s sixty thousand friends are looking for? I didn’t even know I was looking for it myself but I’m certainly glad I found it. You shouldn’t turn down a cool, fresh change or a Forever Holiday if one’s on offer.

- Chris Cobcroft.