5 Star Motel

It's hard to find out anything about Gitkin. It appears that this is the almost-one-man-band's debut record; 5 Star Motel is a concept album of sorts, supposedly inspired by Gitkin's mysterious bootleg-guitar-selling, US-travelling, possibly part-mythical uncle. If, like me, that brings you to expect an Americana fest of lonely highways, you’re in for a surprise.

At the heart of it, 5 Star Motel is an instrumental album rooted in psychedelic surf rock, but its branches reach much further. The opening track starts with a guitar in the style of an Arabic qanun(zither) and, from there, influences abound from Greece, Turkey, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica and elsewhere. There's lounge jazz, synth-pop, baroque folk and, yes, some Americana in there too.

When so many diverse flavours are crammed into one album, the result is usually incoherent and forced, but not here: Gitkin manages it with an uncommon subtlety. All those international melodies and rhythms fit into each other with ease, with a healthy drenching of reverb and echo straight out of the 1960s. 5 Star Motel is an unexpected delight; listen without expectations.