8/10

After delivering his incredibly well-received debut album 'Inji' back in 2015, former Late Of The Pier frontman Sam Dust was riding a wave of buzz and acclaim that saw him completely separate himself from his formative outfit. While LOTP were not your conventional indie-rock outfit and in fact, led the charge in bringing experimentation to the genre, his new project LA Priest looked to move that one step closer to becoming a completely unique venture. And after five years of near complete silence, he has now returned with his long-awaited sophomore full-length 'GENE', a release that sees him hone his progressive direction.

What first struck us about 'Inji' was its sheer lack of contemporaries. It was almost impossible to pin down his style through the guise of other musicians around him, and so met us in this completely fresh and original way. And while 'GENE' obviously doesn't have that same instant impact to it, Dust has looked to perfect this abject direction by flushing it through a mixture of slow and fast, loud and quiet compositions that look to highlight the dexterity in his work. From the start, this new collection makes it clear that while you may be familiar with the direction, you have not heard it like this before.

Although the wait was longer than we originally anticipated, fives years feels like the perfect amount of time to fully appreciate this strange and psychedelic path that he has built for himself. Reminiscent of the old LA Priest but still very much doing his own thing, 'GENE' is a wonder on the new music landscape and one we won't be tiring of for another five years yet.