Gerry Mitchell & Little Sparta - Ragged Garden

Last month, the British press carried the story of a man in India who married a dog in order to ward off a curse. That, I'm sure, had nothing to do with Gerry Mitchell or long time collaborators Little Sparta. But in an age when unseemly weddings are deemed newsworthy, this second album proves the matrimony of chalk and cheese can be done with subtlety and beauty, if not always taking the most light-hearted way possible. It would be wrong to call Little Sparta spoken word artist Mitchell's backing band: one compliments the other almost perfectly. The traditional acoustic instrumentation and morbid lyrical drone take turns in the driver's seat, neither outstaying their welcome, the result being an album that's compelling and enchanting, despite its lack of a clear centrepiece. It may seem fundamentally wrong to describe something fixated on death, spooks, blood, hell and hate as beautiful but in Ragged Garden, it all sounds just lovely. [Finbarr Bermingham]