Wounded Knee – House Music

Drew Wright is an Edinburgh freak-folker whose work as Wounded Knee has thus far divided critical opinion at The Skinny, dazzling some while bemusing others. His latest, House Music is unlikely to change that; being composed of much the same jumbled stramash of mouth music, tape looping, human beatbox, chanting and shantying as before. It is, though, a more developed album than last year's Shimmering New Vistas (which garnered a respectable 4-star review in these very pages), with Wright's lo-fi, kitchen-sink production ethic translating snugly to cassette format. Meanwhile his songs take on a broader thematic spectrum: solemn, Gaelic-esque psalms, 'fuck yous' to the British National Party, plaintive folk songs, and bluesy kazoo solos are all present, and without the constant clarity of song beginnings and endings, it's easy to become absorbed in Wright's homespun audio world. And it’s no bad thing, because it's a fun – if fairly surreal – place to visit. [Martin Skivington]