The Curse Of Vale Do Lobo

The intriguing – if somewhat difficult – Ambulance step up a gear with this release on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu label. And here’s the skinny – if you dig Mike and his cohorts (Aphex, Autechre et al), this is up your street. If not prepare to be confused. Ambulance do a mean line in all things off-kilter – arrythmical drums, skewed chords, wild synths plus, variously, mutant horns, hyper-processed guitars and evil bass. Well, we might be wrong on the latter few, but that’s what it sounds like. Where it works – the busy ‘Hymn’, the delicate ‘Cad Quad Qui’, the manic ‘Rodeo’, it’s enjoyably intriguing, but it’s quite difficult to take over the full 70 minutes.

There’s gold in these here hills alright, but you have to be patient.