Various Artists ‘Field Recordings EP’ (Regularbeat) Released 20/3/06

Ambrose Tompkins kicks off this eclectic EP with its best track, 'My Dirt'. Driven by acoustic-guitar, it sounds like one of Led Zeppelin’s more considered moments and features an ear-catching angular north-African tinged guitar. Yellow Kid's ‘Far At Sea’ follows, a plaintive sea-shanty which drifts along in shallower waters than, say, The Coral. The Rawkus Beeston Empire brings something completely different with ‘John’s Dream’. Over faint, disjointed jazz-blues impressions, Beeston unravels a dead-pan account of a bizarre dream which abstractly winds through women turning into cows and the mind of Michael Jackson, before concluding with the observation, “If the universe is infinite then our lives cannot end when we die,” a comforting thought to anyone suffering from an existential crisis. After such abstraction, the melancholic balladry of Mitch And Murray’s ‘Health And Wellness’ is pleasant enough, but drags on a bit at five minutes – but, all in all, Field Recordings showcases a solid series of artists.