Pascal Comelade - The No Dancing

It's a stretch but imagine, if you will, a bored Tom Waits wearily mucking about in the Early Learning Centre. That at least is something approaching Pascal Comelade;
barely tuned mandolins and toy pianos sit beside glockenspiels and trumpets on this “best of” collection. The structures are extremely basic – often insultingly so – but such ironic simplicity seems to be faring well right now, especially in the art scene. To its credit, The No Dancing manages to avoid accusations of pretentiousness by its sheer absurdity. That one man's whimsical, pedestrian, musical ruminations can be met with the kind of underground acclaim Comelade currently enjoys in, say, Catalan Spain, is mystifying but also strangely admirable. Or perhaps perverse is a better word. Regardless, there are numerous candidates for US indie film soundtracks here, but the only real moment of class comes in the form of a collaboration with PJ Harvey. [Chris Cusack]