PETER CAT RECORDING CO. - Bismillah 2xLP

Label: Panache

If discovering your favourite new band via a 'Best Of' feels a curious premise, then 'Bismillah' does more than hint towards the promise of Peter Cat Recording Co's future. Blending gypsy jazz, psychedelic cabaret, space disco, bossa supernova, Bollywood and uneasy listening with kaleidoscopic ease, in many senses, the band's knack hasn't altered. Always different, paradoxical, unpredictable yet somehow familiar.

The album opens to the strains of bird chatter, the whisper of a city's soundscape and the first few notes from an instrument which seem to be calling us to the departure lounge, a fore-shadow of the flight 'Bismillah' launches it's listener on. Suryakant sings with the detached, rueful elegance of Sinatra marooned on a desert island, whilst his band create small space-time capsules which navigate their way through genres and eras - including the future - and between nostalgia and eccentricity.