King Creosote - Astronaut Meets Astroman

Including CD-Rs and limited editions, Kenny "King Creosote" Anderson has released over 40 albums. With such an extensive, convoluted back catalogue, it is hard to keep up with everything he has done or pick highlights. This is the best I have heard since the Diamond Mine collaboration with Jon Hopkins and may just be the best album yet from this prolific artist. In simple terms this is folk music but a folk unlike any other. You Just Want is a keening piece of melancholy. Melon Wynt combines a driving krautrock beat, beautifully picked guitar, mournful strings and bagpipe drones. Wake Up To This and Love Life are (almost) conventional pop. Faux Call is fragile, painful but ultimately cathartic. Betelgeuse is the closest thing here to anything on Diamond Mine. The looped and treated child's voice on Peter Rabbit Tea is frankly disturbing. Surface brings more motorik rhythm with fuzzy, funky keys. Rules of Engagement is the closest thing here to straight folk but adds some tasty found sounds and effects. The songwriting is to KC’s usual high standard. With superb lyrics, he is in fine voice. This review has been based on a stream but I’ve ordered a physical copy. And that is pretty much the highest recommendation I can give.