It's hard to imagine a better tutor in the current pop climate than the Streets' Mike Skinner. Kevin Mark Trail, a north Londoner of Jamaican descent, supplied backing vocals on Original Pirate Material and became Skinner's vocal spar on tour, clowning confidently and showing up Skinner's rather average singing voice.

His solo material ploughs a similar furrow, mixing hip-hop, R&B and reggae into literate but easily digestible pop. His association with Skinner certainly seems to have prepared him for the live arena - something he can be thankful for tonight, when he comes on stage after a bunch of indie plodders and a melodramatic post-goth outfit to face a sparse, wall-hugging crowd.

Trail is nothing if not a trouper, and he and his eight-piece backing band are soon bopping about the stage to forthcoming single Perspective, which mixes reggae and bad TV (he namechecks Blind Date and EastEnders) into a potent statement of intent. It's here that Trail is at his best, telling tales of domestic manners (Bread) and city life (D Thames) while his band fashion a warm, funky backdrop.

It all sounds rather wonderful, which makes the slide into glossy nonsense later in the evening a little hard to bear. Breathless sounds like Phil Collins gone swingbeat, Trail raising his hand to illustrate the altitude of his notes before warbling the closing line like a Pop Idol wannabe. City Boy's depiction of urban strife, meanwhile, is rather undermined by a slick pop backing.

Only time will tell if Trail ends up staying afloat on this bubbling fusion or sinking into vacuous pop. If he chooses the former, he might well be a force to be reckoned with.

· At Fibbers, York, tonight. Box office: 01904 651250. Then touring.