Cold Weather Music

A skilled and tasteful guitarist, Paul Tasker has taken time out from his band, the Doghouse Roses, to craft a rootsy acoustic suite of restrained instrumental pieces, arranged for various guitars, banjos and flute, with touches of cello and steel guitar. It gets off to a rather unconvincing start, with a slight tune that would have made a perfect brief intro to the album, but which is too insubstantial to justify its six-and-a-half minutes. But things perk up significantly with the bluesy slide-guitar lines of ‘Valve Oil’, featuring arresting percussive oil-can noises, produced (by the sound of it) via inventive plucking of a metal-bodied guitar. It's followed by the strong melody of the Spanish-influenced, waltz-time ‘Blooms in the Autumn’. ‘Tundra Plane’ (sic) has something of Ry Cooder to it, with a wistful Mexican-ballad feel in the lonesome banjo clucking.

As the album's title and panoramic cover photograph suggest: this is mood music that would make an ideal film soundtrack. But it doesn’t really stand alone on its own merits. Too much of this album is crying out for a singer to provide focus and emotional core.