Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides + Human Combustion Engine - Human Horses (CD)

Ah, here’s a match made in free-expression heaven, surely? Jazzy French improv weirdos Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides and Yorkshire’s Human Combustion Engine (the synthdrift duo of Ashtray Navigations’ Phil and Mel), so we’ve got the organic drum’n’flute free skronk of the Horses clattering gently against the synth drones and wibbles and blips coming from the Engine half. Sometimes it drifts into a bit of an industrial dark ambient place, with ominous metallic hiss and rumble over plaintive flute drones and barely there drum skitter, elsewhere there’s a more light-hearted spacescape going on, with steel birds chirruping overhead while the physical sputter and chunter of the drums keeps things grounded.

About 20 minutes in we end up in a real minimal jungle of slow-paced synth whooshes, gentle tribal-sounding drum patterns and high pitched flute drones that are sending me into a total trance. That’s two records in a row that I’ve struggled to review because I keep ending up looking slack-jawed at the floor with an empty head. When it comes to this kind of music, that’s a good sign I think. I went to see Ashtray Navigations and Astral Social Club at the weekend and spent both their sets in a state of semi-conscious bliss. This is a similarly detaching bit of free weirdness that’ll swirl your head up.