INITIALS

Window Ledge (9th Division)

Theres an instantaneous feeling of delicate beauty and intimacy that washes over you as simple acoustic chords are plucked and an almost whispered voice draws you into a very personal world. The owner of this world is Matt McBeath and along with his five colleagues, this makes up Initials debut album.

Not always solo, these folk-country tunes do travel varied dirt tracks and inner-city backroads, from the dustbowl Western sound of I Am Gone, to the somewhat sanctimoniously orchestrated South For Summer, piano lullaby Road and the Neil Young-inspired guitar-squall of Two Brothers. Like the pop moments of Gersey or folk of Machine Translations, theres as much a happy and rolling feel to these ten songs as melancholy reflection on fading memories.

(Carl Snatch) Time off