Gerling have been one of the more eclectic groups on the Australian music scene for the past decade. Switching styles from indie rock to disco, to hip hop to punk, to post rock, to electro in the space of a single record they managed to delight and confound audiences in equal measure. But this debut solo release from Gerling’s Darren Cross ditches the genre hoping to focus on the indie-dance of their earlier hits Enter Space Capsule and Hot Computer.

Cross claims that he was after ‘an upbeat style of abstract dance music with relaxed vocals, kind of like when Leonard Cohen went electro for five minutes in the 1980s’. While it’s certainly upbeat with relaxed vocal E.L.F lyrics never strive for any of Cohen’s poetic musings. Instead Cross sings of cockroaches, pop stars and girls who won’t come out to dance.

Stevie Nicks Hearts doesn’t limit the name dropping to the title with Cross comparing himself to Lily Allen, Shaun Ryder, Shane McGowen and a ‘straight Elton John’. It’s a keyboard driven tune with sweeping production that rise the tune to near anthemic heights. Cockroaches squashes flat vocals against a clattering mix of samples. While on Billie slippery vocoded vocals plead the title star to come out dancing to a tune that she and the indie kids surely can’t resist. Takemeback repeats the title – and the begging theme – with a frenetic disco backing that would easily slide into a Justice setlist. The remixed version of Bille that closes the EP shifts the focus to beats and more anthemic synth lines, but loses out the focused pleas of the original.

The E.L.F is more than a one man band, with Cross writing, producing and playing the music as well as running the record label. He has even taken it upon himself to shoot and edit the $12 YouTube video for Cockroaches. The E.L.F is not so much D-I-Y as D-E-Y; Do Everything Yourself. This EP is a mere four track taster of the E.L.F project, with a remix as a bonus cut, but with Gerling in indefinite hiatus there’s no worry that Cross will continue to carry the baton for their many fans.