Dan's 'shimmering' muis cmoves froma stuffy bedroom into the big wide world

WHEN Dan Cowely went off to university in Scarborough, he packed something rather unusual in his rucksack - a record deal.

You see, by day he might be a music technology student, but by night he becomes National Forest, the latest in Manc-leaning pop electronica superhero, from the stable that brought us Mint Royale and Alpinestars. With that kind of pedigree, it's unlikely he could fail.

''I've been kind of making music on the computer for four or five years,'' he explains, ''messing around with loops and things like that. I guess I discovered the, er, unmistakeable National Forest sound a couple of years ago.

"And it's just a matter of scraping together enough, windfalls if you will, from the hard drive and putting them on a tape and sending them off to (local label) Faith & Hope. They dug it, which was nice.''

Dan/Forest is the latest in a trend of bedroom boffins who have begun to break free of the shackles that have branded electro as lo fi, exclusive and icy. Named after a Grandaddy song (Broken Household Appliance National Forest) there was always going to be a human heart to New Forest.

''I don't think my music's as sterile or dry, or basically electronic - so I guess that's reflected in the name.''

It's also reflected in the fact that his debut, eponymous EP, is among the warmest, most baffling things we've heard all year. Lead track Soda Lake, is built around a sample from an ''indie rock'' band of his acquaintance and mashes it up into a shimmering, stuttering, folk-industrial blanket of the unexpected.

It's most charming because it sounds like the tip of a genuine iceberg. ''I think a lot of it is like happy mistakes,'' explains Dan, ''and I guess I've got a good ear for hearing beauty in a mistake.

"You just kind of stumble across things and try and develop things from the mistake, using that as a basis for what you're doing. Because you're coming from the angle of not starting with something perfect, I guess it makes everything fall a little bit differently.''

In the meantime, he's been whiling away the hours doing bedroom remixes of the Super Furry Animals, with a nasty suspicion that someone somewhere has sent them to the band.

Ultimately, Dan would like to remix Johnny Cash, ''because he's badass''. But before that there's another EP and an album on the cards next year. Then an eventual live show, but that one will take some thought, because ''I haven't got a laptop, so I can't really do the whole 'sit on a stage and fiddle' thing.''

For now, he's holding off on the spandex and remaining incognito at college. But that, too, has its benefits.

''It's alright thus far, because the course I'm doing is music technology anyway, so hopefully one will play off the other a bit - use some of the National Forest stuff as coursework, and use the studios and stuff at uni - and learn how to mike up a drumkit!''

And, of course, there's all the elements of, er, Scarborough for inspiration?

''Not thus far, but maybe that will change.''

It seems woodland is as far as National Forest will go. He looks knowing.

''There's a big, old copse about ten minutes walk away. I'll have to go and explore that one.''

The National Forest EP is out this week on Faith & Hope.