Being labelled pretentious can have a terrible effect on an artist's career. The P-word is the rock journalist's equivalent of a Scud missile, usually hurled at acts who think they are cleverer than they are or too clever for their own good. It is mostly reserved for bands who listen to too much Genesis, wear too much make-up or make concept albums about fish.
However, being bold enough to risk looking stupid has also produced some of our most exhilarating music - from David Bowie to Jeff Buckley - and this applies to Martin Grech.
His life's work could typify pretension. At the age of 12, when other Aylesbury boys were busy with their Playstations, he disappeared into his bedroom with Radiohead's The Bends, the family piano and a book about Salvador Dali.
Last year's Open Heart Zoo was the result of a six-year odyssey, mixing rock, space rock, cybertronics, industrial, classical, opera and songs about masochism and disease. It received grand critical acclaim.
Since the album cover depicts Grech's head in robot graphics, nobody knows exactly what he looks like, although there were few surprises when he emerged resembling Tom Baker's Doctor Who. Everything seemed bigger than on the album, not least Grech's extraterrestrial wail, delivered as he fixed his bulging eyes on something obviously fascinating on the ceiling.
There is something slightly messianic about Grech. His entranced state recalls the young Roger Daltrey and his mime movements and hand gestures (delivered with a grin, not po-faced) belong in science fiction.
However, his winning enthusiasm swept everything along into his grand vision. With the backing band reproducing the excesses of the album, his music flitted from alien to the emotional: icebound Berlin symphonic melancholia to turbo-charged alien metal. Open Heart Zoo was enlivened by the fizz of electronic percussion. This track first announced Grech via a car advert for Lexus.
Judging from the empty car park and his rapturous reception, his appeal now extends to mere mortals, who came here on the bus.
