According to Elyas Khan, Brawl in Paradise was an explorational voyage as he tried to make sense of the gods and devils in all of us: "Like a Katak dancer unravels a story that makes no separation between mythical greatness and the bloody fleshiness of our bodies, or a Sufi who spins until his body and mind realize the ethereal matter in which is part of everything," said Khan. "There is an atomic vibration that allows the universe to communicate, when we organize it into music we warp the time and space of the world around us. It is my hope that by channeling the atomic energy that flows through me into music I can somehow spread the universal connection of love and contribute in some humble way to the relief of suffering, not only of humans but of our patiently observant host, Earth."

Sounds like Khan has been smoking too many of those hippy rollies; that or he's desperate to hide the fact that he had writers block. He admits that he wrote this album by shutting himself in the top of the old GDR Radio Broadcasting centre, in a tower overlooking Berlin - where he began to filter through the questions and sounds that came to him. Hmm! Okay, whatever.

This album is compiled of rather odd tracks, some where Khan yelps and wails rather pathetically, some where his naturally beautiful voice shines through - but the music is just so discordant as to be distracting.

"The beauty of our world is so moving it can be almost overwhelming, like being in a dream state," continues Khan. "I could feel the weight of our history as humans in this garden of Paradise we have been given to inhabit. And I began to question why, given this perfection to be free in, we choose to brawl in it constantly, to fight and destroy. Maybe the weight of natural perfection, the terror of accepting it and truly connecting to the oneness of all matter and energy is too much to bear. I can’t answer this, so I look to art for the answers, this is what art gives me."

Maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps it's a clever sideways take on how uniform and prosaic pop music has become. But, for me, it was painful to listen to - and just so dull. If, on the other hand this is supposed to be serious, then the man needs to see a therapist, and not share his self-indulgent nonsense with the rest of the world.

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Nick Smithson