Kontiki Suite: On Sunset Lake

Plenty of musicians draw inspiration from both east and west, but Kontiki Suite are a blend of north and west - the American west coast sound of the 60s reborn in northern England.

This means lush folk-pop packed with jangly guitar, lap steel, organs and vocal harmonies, but with real human lives and frailties beneath the transatlantic pastoral shimmer - painfully so in Open Up & Smile and She Gets High.

They allow themselves plenty of starry-eyed moments, though, starting with Down By the Lake and the all-consuming love of a new child in See You In the Morning (Elwood's Theme), and concluding with a song cycle of kaleidoscopic romantic vistas, from Watching Over Me and Autumn Fields to the dreamy swirl of the aptly titled Magic Carpet Ride. One to watch.

Best tracks: In My Head, Watching Over Me. Reviews by Nick Ward; CDs for review from Everyman, Nelson.

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