Amy Winehouse's massive success will probably begin a flood of retro soul, of which Liverpudlian songstress Candie Payne is poised to be a key beneficiary. However, she's a world away from Winehouse's emotional, big-lunged pop.

Payne's debut album, I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, combines Dusty Springfield with the painstakingly mannered trip-hop and soul-pop of the mid-90s: Portishead, St Etienne and Mono. It is painstakingly crafted but curiously emotionless, like laboratory soul. Live, there is another reason for what comes across as studied cool. "I'm not going to small talk," begins Payne. "I'm very nervous." However, hiding under the kind of unkempt mop last seen on 1960s protest marches, the slightly built singer is rather endearing as she gradually finds confidence and her voice, a two-pronged device which veers from Dusty-soft to a Siouxsie foghorn bellow.

Backed by the remnants of 90s Liverpool madcap outfit the Stairs, the music is more human, more garage-y and psychedelic than on record, the echoed twangs and distorted keyboards reminiscent of the Move and even the mighty Fall. The brassy I Wish I Could Have Loved You More suggests Jean Shrimpton is about to leap from the 1960s to land on the Faversham's tiny stage. In The Morning is more emotional, depicting a facade of public strength after a rejection.

She needs to really let rip more often - some songs in her strangely short set are so cold they presumably passed away during a fruitless search for a hookline. However, a Blondiesque number played live for the first time sounds like a future hit. The stomping Say Goodbye even sees her singing while smiling and hopping on one leg, suggesting a bright future in full-bloodied retro pop, not plastic soul.

· At the Dot to Dot festival, Bristol (08713 100 000), tonight. Then touring.