Operating with the sort of vigourous workrate Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard would approve of, folktronica heroes Peter Astor and David Sheppard have their fingers on more post-rock pulses than most of us could shake one of Slint's cracked drumsticks at.
Having garnered rightful acclaim for last year's eponymous debut album of remixes featuring the likes of Regular Fries and the Manics (on Heavenly), Sheppard's since been responsible for one of 2003's loveliest albums in "Early Music" (Rocket Girl) in his State River Widening guise (with Keiron Phelan) and in tandem with Astor again they're about to re-emerge with their Wisdom Of Harry project.
Phew! Hope you've kept up at the back there, because if so, you now get to kick back and relax with Astor and Sheppard's langourous grooves as they surface with Ellis Island Sound once more and treat us to "Home Service": a 7-track, 1-sided clear vinyl 12" - strictly limited to 500 copies. But of course.
And naturally, "Home Service" is again a thing of rare, scuffed beauty, with Astor and Sheppard coating warm acoustic guitars with found sounds, gentle loops and this time a penchant for that under-rated workhorse: the Bontempi organ.
Brevity is certainly the key to this project, too. Clocking in at under 20 minutes running time, nothing outlasts its' welcome and - with the exception of "Z Time" (strident pianos mutating into a wonked-out "Get Carter"-style tabla fest) - it's a pretty sublime mood mosaic, all told.
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Indeed, all the remaining six tracks are equally welcome, though this reviewer would probably cherry pick the slightly medieval air of opener "WG73" (warm circular acoustic guitar spars with twinkly harpsichord), "Bontempi Rain Effect" (cheap organ sound with nagging refrain and low-key loops) and the insistent, sub-Carnival feel of the likeable "Palmsville", which flirts happily with mellotrons and other analogous delights.
As a very low-key project, "Home Service" isn't to be regarded as a full-on follow-up to Ellis Island Sound's eponymous debut and indeed it's an altogether more fragile, fragmentary affair. Nonetheless, it's got its' own special serene air and, as companion pieces go, it's well worth hunting down.
(contact: geoffstatic@btinternet.com )
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