The Winchester Club - Britannia Triumphant

Three tracks and nearly forty minutes long: is it a single? Is it an album? The choice is yours. However brief it might be, Britannia Triumphant does feel longer than most albums. The Winchester Club specialise in epic instrumentals, and the word epic is not used lightly. Lengthy pieces of music have their place, certainly, but they should at least have the pretence of building to something interesting: the title track here merely saunters in and doesn't do a lot for about ten minutes before it seemingly turns into Doves' Firesuite for the final three. The second track, Settle Down, is more interesting as its vocals seem to have been taken from a relaxation tape, but the actual instrumentation is nearly indistinguishable from the song before it. It's not a bad post-rock album, but nor is it anything that Mogwai or Oceansize haven't already made a much better job of. [Heather Crumley]